On a Python’s Tail
By Pita Ochai
Monday, September 22, 2008
Traders' protests have made life unbearable for the management of Aulic Nigeria Limited, concessionaire of International Trade Fair Complex along Lagos-Badagry expressway
Aulic Nigeria Limited might not have forseen that it was stepping on a python's tail when it took over the concessionary management of the International Trade Fair Complex along the Lagos-Badagry expressway. Since July 23, when the Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, handed the complex to it, the concessionaire has known no peace.
Traders who were occupying the complex under a lease agreement signed with the former management have continued to protest the actions of the new management.
On September 9, traders demonstrated again in the complex, carrying placards and resisting the activities of the concessionaire. The traders alleged that the new management had attempted to use thugs to eject them from their shops, which they built under a lease agreement with the former management of the complex. Aulic was also said to have introduced an illegal toll at the gate of the complex.
The traders under the umbrella of three different associations had earlier expressed their displeasure to the BPE over the concessioning of the complex to Aulic. The Auto-Spare Parts and Machinery Dealers Association, ASPAMDA, registered trustees of Balogun Business Association, BBA, and the registered trustees of the Association of the Progressive Traders, APT, all claim to have an earlier lease agreement of 50 years with the former management of the complex and that their agreement was not considered in the concessioning process.
Okwudili Chukwuma, secretary-general, ASPAMDA, said that Aulic had, on July 24, brought in armed thugs to forcefully eject them from their shops. He said that it was the timely intervention of the police that saved the situation. He described the concessioning as an injustice to the traders.
"We are into lease agreement of 50 years with effect from January 5, 2005. We used our funds in putting up the infrastructure in the places we occupy, the BPE did not consider our lease agreement in the concessioning process. We got to the complex one day to see armed thugs asking us to leave the complex and that we no longer own the place," he said.
But Ken Amauche, executive director, finance and administration, Aulic, said that the traders were ignorant of the concessioning process by the BPE. He said that there was no reason why the traders should resist Aulic as the new managers of the complex when it was only implementing the policies of the old management and not as owners of the complex. "The federal government still owns the complex 100 percent and not Aulic, we are only coming in to supervise the activities of the traders and make the complex profitable for the government and the people of Nigeria," he said.
According to him, the government stands to get about N17 billion on investment on infrastructure in the complex and an additional N40 billion as revenue from Aulic within the 25 years of the concession arrangement. "We are here to make things work and bring the complex to international standard, boost the entire West African economy and also benefit the traders operating here," he said.
Amauche denied the accusation that Aulic brought thugs to eject the traders from the complex. Rather, he claimed that the traders recruited thugs from Aguleri in Anambra state to help them destroy property if Aulic continued to manage the complex. "Through contact with the Lagos state commissioner of police, policemen were brought in and some of the thugs were arrested. That was how we saved what would have been an ugly incidence," he said. Amauche wondered why the traders are resisting the payment of an existing toll, which Aulic inherited from the complex’s former managers.
Joseph Anichebe, BPE spokesman, said that the traders’ claim that Aulic was incompetent to manage the complex was false because the bidding process was transparently done and Aulic was the most qualified among the seven bidders. He said that due to the resistance from the three traders’ associations, the BPE was working out an amicable settlement for the lingering issue. Anichebe said the BPE was working with its consultants to find a workable solution to those with the 50-year lease agreement with the former management of the complex.
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