*Wants restoration of master plan design, access roads, sanitation, fire service
By; SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri
Governor Babaghana Unara Zulum of Borno State has said that his government has set up a very important committee that will look into the possibility of establishing another market as the reconstructed famous Monday market master plan has existed for over 25 to 30 years.
“We have given go ahead to the committee to conduct a feasibility study that will allow the establishment of another market in my dual wettability to decongest the market this very important market for any future reference.
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“We have gone through the market and we must take some hard decisions, all those structures that are on demand routes, has to go
because those illegal structures normally hinder the movement within the market cause outbreaks there will be no access spacious enough to allow people to move within the market ,” Zulum said
“Under no circumstances, the Monday Market would exist without car parks, folder structures that are on car parks have to go and all those structures that are on drainages have to go, apart from this folder structures that will impede other important activities within the market have to go, but I’ve given them directives that under no circumstances the temporary structures have to be demolished.
“We have to look into the light and then see some of the structures that will be allowed. Whenever we have, we have to establish a new market if there is the need for us to do so. You know to shift some of those temporary structures, we shall do so at a later date. And by and large, this is a decision of others that come on.
“And then my major interest is to see how we see everybody gets space to trade, but not all will be accommodated here. We will move others somewhere else or Tashan Kano abandoned stadium. I have already given directives to the committee to forward their recommendations .
“Yes. We have plans to re-establish the fire fighting service system in the market. We will strongly establish a very strong firefighting unit in this modern market and all those people that are operating in the night at the roundabout that leads to this market have to be stopped or moved out,” Zulum said
Earlier, the Chairman of the Monday Market Reconstruction Committee, Alhaji Karami Duniya, who is also a retired Permanent Secretary with the State Civil Service while welcoming the governor and his entourage at the market site before conducting him round all the sections of the famous Monday Market, said, “Alhamdulillah today we have the opportunity to receive His Excellency to inspect the work.
“Your support and encouragement were able to make us reach this stage which is almost at 95% to be fair as only painting, roads, culverts and drainages remain and BORMA has already come and taken measurements.
“The illegal and temporary structures that you are seeing are the dilapidated structures in the market that were constructed or erected as temporary structures which were not in the original master plan of the market.
“They are either built on utility ways or rights of away or on other facilities like restaurants, toilets, water reservoir, fire hydrants and car park, etc. The sub committee in the interim report recommended removal of these temporary structures to give the market premises enough space,.
“The temporary structure serves as a bridge to spread fire throughout the market. It is Your Excellency’s discretion to direct appropriately whether to remove them or otherwise, hence we have the statistics of the shops.
“The roofing material is point 7.7 mm aluminium sheet, it is one of the high grade aluminium sheets. Then the cement we use is 3x which is the best grade in cement.
“We’ve got the best materials and the best engineers to do the work. So you can see the quality of work here. We have a building engineer by name, Engineer Ali Baba and I will ask Your Excellency’s permission or Engr. Ali Baba, to take us around and give you a summary of what he has done here sir. Thank you very much,” Zarami said.
