Some traders have appealed to the attorney general of the federation, Lateef Fagbemi, to immediately stop the Urban Shelter Limited from carrying out construction work in furtherance of the planned remodelling of the Area 7 Shopping Complex, Abuja.
Counsel to the traders, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, in a letter addressed to the AGF through his law firm, chronicled the traders’ plight in the hands of the company, which he alleged unlawfully demolished the complex against subsisting court orders.
The letter followed a fresh order of a high court in Abuja, restraining the Urban Shelter Limited from going ahead with any allocation of shops to any person either in the form of reservation of temporary shop space for both verified and unverified operators in the form of permanent shops to be built at the shopping complex.
Justice O.I. Adeleja, in a fresh interim order dated August 24, had restrained the inspector general of police, listed as the sixth defendant, from further providing official protection to Urban Shelter Limited (fifth defendant) or any other person carrying out any work on the controversial site.
Others listed in the motion marked FCT/HC/M/12457/2023 are the Abuja minister, Federal Capital Development Authority, Abuja Markets Management Limited, Abuja Investment Company Limited and Obinna Okolie.
The letter, dated September 14 and received the same day by the registry of the AGF, specifically accused the I-G of blatant disobedience to the orders of the court dated December 1, 2021, and August 24, urging the AGF to stem the ugly tide and ensure that the I-G enforces these court orders.
They urged the AGF to bring “a complete and comprehensive new phase in the enthronement of the rule of law and obedience to court orders in the country,” adding that “no nation or society can enjoy safety, progress and stability where the rule of law is replaced with whim and caprices of the mighty and court orders are disdained, disobeyed and rubbished.”
Mr Ume lamented that rather than enforce the orders of court arising from the multiple suits, “the police took steps to disobey the same just to protect the unbridled, illegal and selfish interest of a private concern.”
(NAN)
