Banex Plaza Closure: Traders reveal N7bn loss in 1 week
Traders and tenants at the Banex Plaza in Abuja are grappling with the financial aftermath of the prolonged closure of the premises after clashes between some soldiers and perceived traders.
The traders have reported a staggering loss of approximately N7 billion in just one week.
The tensions began on May 18, 2024, when a video surfaced online depicting youths, believed to be traders, engaging in altercations with soldiers at the shopping centre.
The conflict arose from a dispute between a phone seller named Kola Suleiman Ibrahim and an unidentified soldier.
In response to the incident, security personnel cordoned off the area, preventing traders from accessing the plaza for over a week now. The executive committee of the Banex Plaza Tenants Association, led by chairman Chibuike Nzedinma and vice-chairman Cornelius Olayemi, expressed their distress during a press briefing in Abuja over the weekend.
Nzedinma highlighted the significant financial impact of the closure, stating, “If we are to put a figure to it, I am sure it is up to N7 billion that we have lost.”
READ ALSO: Thugs beat up soldiers at Banex market in Abuja, chaos ensues (Video)
“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.
