The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Mohammad Musa Bello, has ordered the indefinite closure of the Dei-Dei International Market following a deadly clash between traders and commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as Okada riders, which claimed five lives on Wednesday.
Bello ordered the closure after inspection of the scene of the violent clash at the international market in company of the FCT Commissioner of Police, CP Sunday Babaji, Director of State Security Services, other security agencies as well as top officials of the FCT Administration.
According to reports, trouble started when a female trader fell off a commercial motorcycle and a moving truck crushed her to death. Bello ordered the community and the international market leaders to find the hoodlums who were guilty of the crisis.
In his words:
“The community and market leaders must fish out hoodlums and bad eggs among them, unfortunately, this time around hoodlums carry arms and they shot innocent people. As a matter of fact, I saw four corpses this is very sad and totally unequivocally unacceptable in Abuja.
“We have agreed with security agencies that full-scale investigations will be done, and the communities have to be part and parcel of the solution or else there will be no peace. In the interim the timber market and the surrounding markets, including all the activities on-road that have clustered the road and made it unpassable will all stop until the technical team reviews everything, and then we will take the next decision.
“I am appealing to other communities within the FCT that there is no tribal or religious misunderstanding because all the leaders of various communities have lived here in peace for many years. This is simply the matter of criminals and hoodlums taking the laws into their hands.”
Recounting the loss from the crisis, the Vice Chairman of Timber Shed market Dei-Dei, Chief Ifeanyi Chibata, told the Minister and his team that
45 to 50 shops as well as 25 vehicles totaling over N 1 billion were burnt during the fracas.
On his part, the secretary of Tomato and Onion Sellers Association Dei-Dei, Dahiru Garba Mani, disclosed that four persons were killed during the clash in the market.
The market leaders both appealed to the FCT Minister to make provision for a police division with adequate personnel within the vicinity of the market.