Traders from Abuja markets on Thursday besieged the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) headquarters, demanding an end to the leadership crisis that has crippled the Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML).

Abubakar Faruk was sacked as the managing director of AMML following a resolution by shareholders. The resolution was endorsed on July 17 by Abubakar Maina, the group managing director of the supervisory agency, Abuja Investments Company Ltd.

After that, Abbas Yakubu was appointed as acting managing director.

However, trouble began when Mr Farouk, on July 18, stormed his former office located in Gudu District, Abuja, with security personnel and locked the office, denying Mr Yakubu access.

The spokesman for the protesting traders, Abubakar Abdullahi, said the crisis had thrown the traders into a state of confusion, particularly on who to recognise as the substantive managing director.

Mr Abdullahi, the secretary general of the FCT Amalgamated Traders Association, said the traders were currently confronted with conflicting orders coming from the two people, all claiming to be the managing director.

“We have seen a letter from Abuja Investments Company Ltd, terminating the contract of Mr Abubakar Faruk as the MD of AMML. We have also seen another letter telling us to stop paying money to anybody,” he noted. “Which should we obey? AMML is the collector of all revenues in the market for the FCTA, so we want to know who is in charge. We want to know who exactly to pay the service charge and dues to.”

He called for the resolution of the crisis, stressing that traders and other business operators in Abuja markets do not want to be paying service charges and other levies to the wrong people.

According to him, the FCTA needs to urgently tell the traders who among the two is the authentic managing director to enable the traders to comply with revenue collections in the markets.

Also speaking, Hassan Ibrahim, the chairman of the Arewa Traders Association, FCT Chapter, called on Faruk to humbly vacate the office, having served as the managing director for 13 years.

Addressing the protesters, Sunday Olubiyi, the FCTA head of internal security, said the agency was aware of the crisis and was doing everything possible to resolve it.

AMML staff also protested the same issue at the FCTA headquarters on Wednesday. The workers appealed to FCTA permanent secretary, Olusade Adesola, to expedite action towards resolving the crisis. 

(NAN)