Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike has warned traders against arbitrary protest without following due process, that such actions will be considered as an attempt at intimidation.
Wike gave the warning while reacting to protesting traders from the Apo Mechanic village, who besieged the entrance of the FCTA secretariat demanding that the minister sign the lease agreement to enable them move to their permanent site at Wassa District.
The traders, who barricaded the minister’s main entrance gate, carrying different placards, appealed to him to sign the lease agreement which was entered into in 2015.
Wike, who was obviously not impressed by the actions of the traders, berated them for not writing to his office to discuss the delay in implementation of the lease agreement or to inform him of the protest, saying that he considered the protest as being sponsored, seeing that there was no basis for the protest.
“If this is the way you support the government, then I do not need it. Is this the way you support the government by barricading the road and obstruction of traffic without informing me of anything. You never wrote to me that you want to see me or that we refuse to see you.
“Then what you will do is to wake up in the morning, and barricade the road and barricade the gate and then you are saying you are supporting me? Then I don’t need your support.
What I do not like is intimidation. If you have a problem, channel your problem to me and if I do not solve it, then you can take another step.
“Something that has happened since 2015 and you did not take any step. Ministers have come and gone, and then I just came and I have not received any letter from you till today, saying there is a problem we are having and we think you can help us to solve the problem.
“Then all of a sudden you are coming to say the good things are doing. What good things? Then you do not need the good things,” he said.
The chairman of the traders’ association, Chimezie Ife, explained that his members were tired of waiting since 2006 to be allocated their permanent business environment, having spent over N100 million.
Ife said that since 2006 when the old Apo mechanic village was demolished with a promise for a permanent location, they waited until 2011 where they applied for a land, but were forced to spend over N100 million over the time by officials of the Administration.