Traders and tenants at the Banex Plaza in Abuja, have lamented the prolonged closure of the premises as a result of the clashes that ensued between some soldiers and perceived traders, saying they have lost about N7 billion in one week.
On May 18, 2024, a video surfaced online indicating that some youths, believed to be traders, were beating some soldiers at the shopping centre, over a misunderstanding between a phone seller, Kola Suleiman Ibrahim and a yet-to-be-identified soldier.
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The situation did not go down well with security personnel and soldiers were deployed to cordon off the area, for more than a week now, keeping the traders off the plaza.
The executive committee of Banex Plaza Tenants Association, led by the chairman, Chibuike Nzedinma and vice chairman, Cornelius Olayemi expressed their despair at a press conference in Abuja at the weekend.
Nzedinma, while counting their losses said: “If we are to put a figure to it, I am sure it is up to N7 billion that we have lost.
“Also, in a little headcount, the number of shops are more than 800 in Banex both the old and the new plaza and then if you take a minimum of four probably the owner of the shop of the business and then another three are staff.
“We are talking of almost 5, 000 persons, 5 ,000 families affected in FCT. There are five banks in Banex. There are also professionals like chartered accountants having their offices, eye clinics, lawyers and a lot of chambers in Banex, not just traders. But people keep feeling that they are only traders in Banex.”
Reading the text of the press conference, the vice chairman, Olayemi said the closure of the premises was also taking a toll on banks, consulting firms and not only shop owners and appealed to the federal government to reopen it while investigation continues.
He said: “We are very law-abiding, very peaceful. A lot of us are graduates. Then we went into entrepreneurship on our own. We are very peaceful.
“We want to also use this to publicly say that what happened would have been avoidable if the buyer had come to the union. So we facilitated those that were handled. But it is quite regrettable.
“Please, note that that video in the public domain is an abridged version of the incident that happened. To start with, we unequivocally condemn the attack on the soldiers as reprehensible and therefore does not represent the peaceful image of the plaza and its tenants since inception.
“However, various versions of what led to this incident have been put out from various quarters leading to skewed information, therefore it has become pertinent to set the record straight as gathered from investigations and eye witnesses,” he said.
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