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Owners of business premises in Area 8 of Garki were last week into confusion as officials of the FCTA Development Control Unit sealed-off their offices.....
Owners of business premises in Area 8 of Garki were last week into confusion as officials of the FCTA Development Control Unit sealed-off their offices.
The Tide correspondent who visited the area reports that officials of the unit arrived early to lock entrances into the business premises.
The officials of the unit ordered the people not to open until they have paid a certain amount of money.
A notice pasted on the doors of the buildings stated that the premises they were occupying were not registered as business premises but as residential premises.
The affected outfits included banks, restaurants, handset outlets and offices of The Sun, Tribune and Vanguard Newspapers.
Gates into the premises were locked while the owners of the businesses were ordered to move out or pay some amount of money to the development control unit for the registration.
A staff of the unit, Hajiya Asmau Ibrahim, told newsmen that the order that the premises would be sealed-off was given to the occupants two weeks ago and that they had enough time to answer to the summons.
'What we are doing today is carrying out what we told them we would do after we have served them with the order," she said.
A restaurant operator, Madam Carol Chukwuma told newsmen that she was asked to pay N800,000 as registration fee 'for the three bedroom like building she is occupying".
'When I contacted the landlord and showed him the seal-off order, he did not respond. And now they came and sealed off the place. I do not know what I am going to do now," she added.
According to her, it seems the landlord is not interested in paying the amount.
A visit to Tribune office in the area showed that the main gates were sealed-off, while the staff have resorted to using a small gate at the back of the building to enter the building.
A situation that further worsened the confusion was that most of the occupants of the buildings had paid their rents fully for the year and now they have been asked to move out of the premises.
A manager of a hotel in the area, who did not want his name mentioned, appealed to the unit to give them till the end of the year so that they could recover their money.
'What is most annoying is that most of the landlords do not want to pay the amount and we have paid our rent fully to them, so what becomes of our money that we paid to them.
'The only option left for us now is to call a meeting of those affected to resolve what we are going to do next," he added.