On Monday 4th of June 2018, shop owners, traders had a face off with armed policemen who invaded the market to enforce the payment of new shop fees.
According to an eye witness, ‘the Nasarawa Urban development board, NUDB invaded the Kapda market located in New Karu local government area with some armed policemen seeking renewal of ownership from shop owners ranging from 200,000 to 300,000 naira which is to be paid every ten years (which hasn’t been happening before now) after collecting ground rent of 30,000 naira few weeks ago and revenue’.
He added that, ‘they said, that all the shops in the market have been revoked and shop owners are to pay for reallocation of shops meanwhile, these shops have been duly bought, paid for and built by their respective owners. They also stated that if anyone should pay the reallocation fee, the shop will be automatically allocated to such person.
Another witness said, ‘shop owners didn’t comply and the NUDB forced traders to either pay the fee or have their shops locked up. The traders Union in kapda market revolted and in the process, there arose a fight between the traders and the NUDB staffs. The trader were chanting “we no go gree oo” “we no go gree oo” which they had written on placards as well. They attempted to block the federal road before the police men scared them away with guns’.
‘When the pressure was much on the NUDB staffs, they left and later came back with some armed civil defence officers threatening to arrest and deal with some traders who were representing the traders union. The fight went on for some time before some traders went to solicit for help and protection from the chief of massaka. There was no sales/business activities and currently, no concrete agreement has been reached’ he added.
