Mayhem at Abuja Plank Market

Lives were lost, assets and goods worth millions of naira destroyed, just as shops were also looted when business owners, commercial motorcycle operators and street urchins clashed at Dei-Dei International Market. The violence rocked Abuja to the core of its foundation, Olawale Ajimotokan reports

Dei-Dei International market is considered as one of Nigeria’s largest independent building materials markets.  The bustling market is located off the Inner Northern road collectively known as Zuba-Kubwa Expressway.

It is a one-stop market where building and construction materials in Abuja, including timber and wood can be bought in affordable and large quantities.

However, on May 18, commercial activities at the market were grounded after traders and commercial motorcycle operators, known as Okada riders, clashed after a woman died in an accident.

The violence warranted the FCT Minister Mohammad Musa Bello to order the indefinite closure of the market.

On that fateful day, tempers flared beyond the point after the woman passenger, who was heading for Dutsen Alhaji, in Bwari Area Council, bumped off a motorcycle and was crushed to death by an approaching articulated vehicle on the Kubwa Expressway.

The death of the woman, identified as Bukky, triggered fracas across the Dei-Dei timbre market and the surrounding markets.

The commotion escalated when some bystanders, out of rage, burned the motorcycle.

The other motorcycle riders showing solidarity with their colleague launched a reprisal which embroiled into a row and inevitably a large scale riot.

The situation was later hijacked by hoodlums, who  capitalised on the mayhem to loot by setting rows of shop and sheds stockpiled with planks, timbres and other building materials on fire. Many vehicles parked within the vicinity were also set ablaze.

It was a day residents of Dei-Dei and its environs and visitors caught in the web of the rage will never forget.

The news of the riot also reverberated all over the social media creating an impression that it was an inter-tribal feud between the Igbo traders and mainly Hausa commercial motor cycle operators and their sympathisers.

Apart from paralyzing business activities in the market, the riot disrupted traffic along the Kubwa Expressway after police officers mobilised to prevent the crisis from escalating, set up roadblock that led to a traffic build up of nearly 15 kilometres from Dei-Dei to the Katampe end of the road.

Many traders lamented that they suffered huge losses on account of the riot. One of the victims, Obiora Nnaemeka said he lost timber goods worth several millions of naira during the fracas.

In his own account, the Secretary Tomato and Onions Sellers Association, Dei-Dei Market, Dahiru Garba Mani said four persons were killed by the hoodlums during the riots. He said the victims died from gunshot injuries inflicted on them by the attackers.

Also the Vice Chairman Timber Shed Market, Ifeanyi Chibata, said between 45 and 50 shops were burnt while 25 vehicles were set ablaze during the riot. 

Chibata said industrial machines and eight trailers of bonded plywood that were unloaded two days before the turmoil were among some of the valued items razed by fire.

He estimated that the total value of planks and building materials that were destroyed in the fire was over one billion naira.

“Two Okadas that were trying to manoeuver themselves collided and unfortunately the woman that was on the back of one of the bikes fell and a trailer drove on her head and she died on the spot.

” Immediately the accident happened, a motorcycle was burnt and other Okada started to gather, harass people and foment trouble. In the process, one of them was killed. We called the Road Safety people. They responded and picked the dead one and those that were also injured. Another corpse of an Okada person was picked and brought into the market because the ambulance could not take him. 

“All of a sudden, Okada people were everywhere. The woman that was killed had no means of identity. We even searched her to see if she had a phone, but she had none.

“It was later that one Okada man came and said he was the person that brought the loads that the woman was taking to her house. He was the person that confirmed the woman was from Dutsen and she was taking those loads to her house. 

“So it was when they saw that we took these people out of the road that Okada operators gathered here,” said Chibata, who has been selling at Dei-Dei for over 25 years.

 The FCT Minister, Musa Bello, who as a result of the crisis summoned an emergency security meeting with the Police Commissioner FCT Command, Babaji Sunday and Director DSS FCT Command, Alhaji Ado Muazu, fiercely disagreed with the insinuation that the crisis had ethnic undertone.

He later led a delegation, comprising the Police Commissioner, the Chairman Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abdulahi Adamu Candido, Vice Chairman AMAC, Lawrence Onuchukwu, the Chief of Jiwa Chiefdom, Alhaji Musa Idris, the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr. Olusade Adesola and other political leaders to the affected communities.

“I have met the leadership of the market and the leadership of the communities. I have also met the political leadership as represented by the chairman and vice chairman of AMAC Area Council in Abuja and what really came out very clearly was this is an accident that occurred, unfortunately when a lady on a commercial motorcycle fell off, and I think, a vehicle ran over her and unfortunately she passed away.

“I am appealing to other communities within the FCT that there is no tribal or religious misunderstanding because all the leaderships 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” he said.

He also urged the community and market leaders to fish out the hoodlums who carried arms and indiscriminately shot innocent people, describing the episode as very sad and totally unacceptable.

The minister enjoined FCT community leaders to identify miscreants, drug pushers, drug dens and drinking joints where crime and criminality were taking place in the territory as police and the military could not be everywhere simultaneously.

“As community leaders, you have to identify all those who are creating confusion here, whether they are Gbagyi, Fulani, Igbo, Hausa, Gwandara –whether they are from anywhere because you are the people who know them, their fathers, where they sleep and where they are staying. So after that, we will come back to review, but meanwhile, we will also try to see that justice is done for those who lost their relatives. I have already told the Police Commissioner what to do.

” This whole place is going to be cordoned off and for the next two to three days no market activities here until we sort it out. And after that we will see which market will open and under what conditions, including all the shops and markets from the main express way up to this way.” Bello said.

He tasked the market leaders to instill disciple in the markets, adding Dei-Dei used to be one of the most peaceful places in the FCT until all kinds of rancours started to play out because of the apathy of the leaders, who outsourced their responsibility for youths with no meaningful economic activities, apart from drug peddling and other vices. 

On his part, Sunday said it was an accident that escalated the crisis at the market.

The police commissioner appealed to the leaders of the community and the market to always find ways of resolving communal disputes before things go out of hand. He also urged all the residents and members of the affected community to maintain law and order. 

Quote“I am appealing to other communities within the FCT that there is no tribal or religious misunderstanding because all the leaderships 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”