Wuye market: Court fixes March 23 for judgment
No fewer than 700 Abuja traders and a firm, All Purpose Shelters Limited (APSL), will know their fate over allocation of shops at the N6.5 billion Wuye Ultramodern Market on March 23.
On that day, Justice O. A. Musa of an Abuja High Court, will deliver judgment on the matter that will spell out the rights of the contending parties in the legal battle.
Before their relationship went sour, APSL and the Abuja Investment and Property Development Company Limited (AIPDCL) signed an agreement to build, operate and transfer the N6.5 billion Wuye Ultra-modern Market.
While the market was being built, provisional offers of allocation were issued to the traders who were expected to pay a certain amount of money to be able to have access to the shops for their business transactions.
The N6.5 billion market which has 1,700 shops could not be used for business transactions after it was commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan due to an order of the court in February 2014 restraining the defendants from allocating any of the offices in the market pending the determination of the substantive suit.
Despite the fact that the court restrained parties from opening the market for business, the period for the repayment of the loan secured for the construction of the market had already started counting.
A senior manager of APSL had told journalists that while the case was pending, APSL secured loan to build the market after a BOT agreement with AIPDCL.
The manager also said that the monies of those that had already paid for the shops are also tied down because the management of the market could not allocate the shops to them because of the pending court case.
He said: “The letters of allocation of those who had already paid are ready in our office but we cannot distribute them because of the closure of the market. But by the grace of God, once we get the court case behind us, we will begin to distribute the allocation letters.”
Before the case was fixed for March 23 for judgment, an Abuja High Court where the case is pending had admitted in evidence the agreement between All Purpose Shelters Limited and AIPDCL.
The agreement, known as BOT, was reached between APSL and AIPDCL for the construction of the multi-billion naira market.
About 706 traders, under the umbrella body of Wuye Ultramodern Market Owners, had dragged the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), All Purpose Shelters Limited and Abuja Property Development Company before the court over the firm’s alleged refusal to allocate shops/space to them after being given provisional offer of allocation letters.