OCTOBER 28, 2013
The event centre
Chairman of the A-Class Park Events Management Services Limited, Senator Aisha Al-Hassan, has described the planned demolition of the center, as an act of witch-hunt and deliberate persecution.
Al-Hassan, who is representing Taraba North in the Senate, alleged at a news conference in Abuja, that some top members of the Peoples Democratic Party were using the Federal Capital Territory Administration, to deal with her due to her membership of the Kawu Baraje-led new PDP.
The three- hectare event centre, located near OAU Quarters at Maitama area of Abuja, had been marked for demolition within 48 hours which expired on Saturday. As at Sunday, PUNCH Metro gathered that the government had yet to move its bulldozers to the centre.
The Management of FCTA had in a notice to Al- Hassan’s firm, claimed that she contravened the agreement contained in her letter of allocation which stated that she was given permission to build the park and event centre, using temporary structures.
Special Assistant to the Minister of FCT on Media, Mr. Nosike Ogbuenyi, told journalists that that the senator “was just given a temporary permit, which forbade her from erecting a permanent structure on the land.”
He said, “The senator signed an undertaking to vacate the land anytime the authority needed it. The operator was given a temporary permit only in 2010 which forbids her from erecting permanent structures on the site.”
But Al-Hassan, who took journalists round the site, admitted that she signed the documents but that the letter of temporary allocation given to her indicated that she would be given an alternative site when government was ready to commence construction of the Maitama Transit Way.
She also maintained that all structures in the modern park were temporary which could be removed within 24 hours, whenever the government was ready with the construction of the transit way project, without seeking compensation.
Al – Hassan said the fact that the government had allocated sites on the Transit Way Corridor to similar firms near her own park, which were not given notices of demolition, clearly showed that she was being punished over her role in the current crisis rocking the PDP.
She noted that scores of her staff, most of whom are bread-winners, would remain jobless while the site, after demolition would became a hideout for criminals because investigation had shown that the government was not prepared to start the Transit Way project for now.
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