Traders affected by ongoing demolition of stalls in Kaduna on Wednesday accused the Kaduna State Government of high handedness.
Officials of the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Agency, KASUPDA, undertook the demolition in the early hours of Tuesday and Wednesday.
The demolition affected stalls in various markets and streets of Kaduna including Abubakar Gumi Central Market, Isa Kaita, Katuru and Dawaki roads.
The traders described the action as unfortunate, and alleged that they did not get prior notice of the demolition.
They also claimed that they were paying N6,000 as annual rent to the Kaduna State Market Development and Management Company.
One of the traders, Suleiman Ibrahim, said he received a call at 2 am that his stand had been demolished by KASUPDA.
“We were not given any prior notice of any intended demolition of our property. The only luck we had was that our goods were not damaged as we usually kept them in a store at the market for safety”.
Another trader, Ramatu Isa also said she heard of the demolition, but not from a reliable source, hence, she could not salvage anything.
“Shops in the market are very expensive and my goods are not even worth the price of the annual shop rent,’’ she said.
Also, Nonso Mba, who was seen reconstructing an extension to his shop earlier demolished, disclosed that he had not committed any offence and had been paying his rent.
Mr Mba said, “My shop is small and not all of my goods can fit in, so the extension gives me more space and I am not on the road’’.
He called on the state government to build markets with bigger shops to stop the demolition trend.
Most of those affected by the demolition were seen reconstructing their stalls and shops, and also carrying on with their businesses.
Officials of KASUPDA were not available for comment as at the time of the report.
NAN
