After one week of siege to the Banex Shopping Plaza in Wuse 2 Abuja, the Nigeria Army Monday withdrew its men from the premises.
The Plaza was cordoned off by the army after two officers were assaulted there on Saturday May 18. They had escorted a civilian who had purchased a faulty phone and they went to confront the dealer identified as Kola Suleiman Ibrahim. But a fiscuff ensued with some thugs allegedly manhandling the soldiers.
The army sealed off the plaza as they looked for the culprits and some arrests were made.
Lamenting their ordeal some of the traders claimed that they have lost close to N7b in one week of the closure of the phone market.
“If we are to put a figure to it, I am sure it is up to N7 billion that we have lost,” said chairman of the Banex Plaza Tenants Association, Chibuike Nzedinma during a press conference at the weekend.
“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.”
