Abuja – December 19, 2023 – Viewpoint Housing News.
A purported proposal by the Police Wives Association to destroy the POWA Plaza in less than a month has drawn opposition from certain retailers at the Computer Village in the Ikeja area of Lagos State.
The traders, who felt victimised, made a plea to the state House of Assembly members, , the Inspector General of Police, and Lagos State Governor , Babajide Sanwo-Oluto to step in.
According to Tayo Shittu, the head of the Computer Dealer Association, the shopkeepers pay between N300,000 and N400,000 a year, and the Police Wives Association is using a selfish agenda to plan a demolition of the shops, in a months time.
“We have a copy of the letter of acknowledgment, but POWA denied the letter and said they do not know anything about it,” Shittu stated. They wish to claim that the structure has flaws, but this is a fabrication. Their self-serving goal is to destroy this plaza . We found that two POWA women are heavily active; one of them serves as the organization’s national chairperson in Abuja.
There are as many as 1,000 people renting the plaza. We visited LABSCA, and after doing an integrity assessment on the building, they declared it to be in excellent condition. The most upsetting thing is that some of them have payed the landladies till 2026 and 2028. Some of them pay N300,000 per year, while others pay N400,000.
Although the traders had appealed to the Police Wives Association, according to Trust Tobechukwu, the former head of the Computer traders Association, they weren’t getting a response as of now.
“The Police Wives Association owns this plaza; some of them are widows and some are the wives of retired police officers,” Tobechukwu stated. The plaza was designated for demolition at some point in 2019, but when we looked into it, we found that the information was inaccurate. We found out it was a developer looking to get in on a little fraudulent deal.
“We took the matter to POWA Lagos after receiving a letter from a developer named Achieving Greatness Properties asking us to vacate the property, and they assured us that the demolition would proceed. Through our attorney, we have written to the wife of the Inspector General of Police, but we have not heard back from her yet. They ought to take the shoppers into account.
“We took the matter to POWA Lagos after receiving a letter from a developer named Achieving Greatness Properties asking us to vacate the property, and they assured us that the demolition would proceed. Through our attorney, we have written to the wife of the Inspector General of Police, but we have not heard back from her yet. We make our living from the shops, therefore they ought to take that into account.
