The UTC Shopping Complex located in the Garki area of Abuja, Nigeria, was unexpectedly demolished by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Saturday. Shop owners were taken aback as the Joint Task Force of the FCTA arrived in the early hours of the morning, preventing them from retrieving valuable items from their shops before the demolition commenced.
According to the shop owners, they had not received any prior notice of the demolition. Although they were instructed to relocate to another complex, they argued that the alternative facility was still unfinished and incapable of accommodating the over 480 shops present in the now-destroyed complex.
While many claims they were unaware of the impending demolition, one individual named John Sunday acknowledged that the FCTA had issued a notice earlier in the year. However, the shop owners had been under the impression that the matter of the relocation was still being contested in court and had hoped for a favorable resolution. Sunday stated, “So perhaps the case had been settled in court without us knowing.”
Yusuf Adebayo, another shop owner, insisted that they had not received any notification regarding the demolition. He also highlighted that the new shops provided lacked essential amenities, such as electricity, despite approximately 300 shop owners having already paid around N250,000 each for these premises.
A salesgirl, who chose to remain anonymous, alleged that security agents accompanying the demolition team resorted to using tear gas to disperse protesting shop owners. The agents were also arrested during the incident. She recounted, “They were spraying tear gas, they beat him up as if he were a child. Even me too, I ran there to go and carry some things; they sprayed tear gas inside that place; they wanted to kill people with tear gas, that policeman was even threatening to shoot us.”