The Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML) has urged traders and other market users in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to support its effort and that of the security agencies in ensuring that the market was not infiltrated by people of ignoble intentions in the guise of peaceful protest.
Acting Managing Director of AMML, Engr. Abbas Yakubu, stated this while speaking with traders and other stakeholder over the weekend in reaction to the proposed protest scheduled for August 1, 2024.
He cautioned, that experiences including a very recent ones have shown that miscreant will not stop at anything to take advantage of any type of gathering in the market, whether peaceful or not.
Abbas reminded the traders how some shops in Wuse Market, office and the police station were torched and millions of Naira worth of properties destroyed just a few months ago by miscreants who had no stake in the market.
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He noted that the market was yet to fully recover from that incident, maintaining that Abuja Markets Management Limited cannot afford to risk a repeat of such occurrence in any of its market.
‘’We have history of protests and other incidents cascading into wanton destruction of properties in our markets; no responsible management or trader will fold its hand and wait for it to repeat.
“That is why we are urging you all to mobilise your fellow traders, the wheel barrow pushers, your apprentices and everyone who has legitimate business in the markets to resist any attempt at infiltrating the market by hoodlums in the guise of protest,’ he advised.
Speaking further, he clarified that the market as business environment is designated for buying and selling and therefore should be jealously guarded by the owners and operators for that purpose.
“I understand that it (the protest) may not hold as many groups are withdrawing from it. I also learnt that there are designated places and locations as well as other rules guiding the protest.
“We are just being proactive here to state emphatically that if you must protest, stay away from the market,” he concluded.
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