Following the demonstration by stakeholders in the markets inside the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex (LITFC) and its temporary shutdown for parts of Monday March 18,2019, the Federal Government, through its agency, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), has said that it has no plan of selling the edifice.
This is contrary to the rumour in the market that led to the demonstration, that the national leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the Lagos State government have bought it.
Rather, the BPE in a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by its Head, Public Communications, Amina Othman, said that the Federal Government was in the process of concessioning the complex and had secured the services of transaction adviser in the person of Messrs Feedback Infrastructure Services to do that.
“The attention of BPE has been drawn to the alleged closure of the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex by the Traders’ Associations operating in the Complex and the protest by the said association over the purported sale of the complex.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the bureau states that the Federal Government of Nigeria through the BPE does not intend to sell the complex rather the facility would be concessioned through a competitive transaction process.
“It is for this reason that the government has procured the services of Messrs Feedback Infrastructure Services to advise on the way forward for the proposed concession. It is apt to inform the public that the bureau on Friday, March 1, 2019, met with the entire Traders’ Associations to explain the essence of the planned concession.”
Othman added, “The bureau had on August 23, 2017 placed a caveat emptor in some national newspapers in the country wherein it stated that the lease agreement that was hitherto executed by the FGN in favour of Aulic Nigeria Limited had been validly terminated and possession reverted to the FGN with effect from 23rd day of August 2017.
“Members of the public were therefore warned that ‘any purported allotment, buying, selling, letting, leasing, charging, and subdivision, construction upon or dealings in connection with the said property and parcels of land in any other manner howsoever without the written permission of the FGN represented by the BPE is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent and amounts to trespass’.
“It further warned that any person(s) interfering with the said parcels of land ‘stand to lose their money as the FGN through the BPE will neither honour agreements, contracts or arrangements entered into with person(s) purporting to have authority to transact the property and or parcels of land whether in the manner described or in any other manner whatsoever nor will it reimburse any monies paid in respect of such transaction’.”
According to Othman, the privatisation agency is willing to collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure a smooth and successful completion of the transaction.
However, some of the leaders of the various associations told Newdawn on Monday March19 2019 during the protest that they were against the outright sale of the complex or concession.
They said that they took that stance of no sale or concession based on their experience of the past where the edifice was concessioned to a concossennaire who made them go through hell and remitted nothing to the Federal coffers for the nine years it operated.
Such they said they do not want to repeat itself and that they noticed that among the new faces the BPE had signed on to concession the place, were the same people that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government concessioned the place to for nine years with out remitting a dime to the government. Rather, they said they wanted to deal directly with the government through the complex’s management.
According to one of the leaders who gave his name as Chief Tony Obi, “even if the government is serious about selling the place, we should be given the right of first refusal. After all, we built the structures in the market, not government. We only leased the land from the government and pay our rents.”
While speaking to us, the Executive Director/Chief Executive Office of LITFC, Mrs. Lucy Ajayi-Omosefe Ajayi, said that she had little or nothing to say about the concluded plan to concession the place but that she would have wished if patience is exercised in concessioning the place because of the ugly experience of the past.
She promised to take the petitions of the stakeholders to Abuja on Tuesday. March 19, 2019
