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…Seeks justice
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Platinum Parking Management, Olusegun Olarenwaju, and the MD/CEO Integrated Parking Managers, Iliyasu Abdul, have petitioned President Bola Tinubu and the newly appointed Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to investigate the activities of some of the top official of the Federal Capital Territory, over alleged corruption and unfair treatment in contractural agreements.”
Olarenwaju and Abdul who claimed to be the owners and initiators of the recently reintroduced Abuja Park and Pay project, said they were unceremoniously pushed aside in the new arrangement by the Adesola Olusade led Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA) contrary to ministerial advisory.
They claimed that they were privy to the immediate past Minister’s advisory to the Permanent Secretary in his hand over note to ensure that the two pioneer companies were given rights of first refusal but to their utter shock and dismay, they were pushed aside while the Permanent Secretary and some senior civil servant in the FCTA, brought in proxies who allegedly stole the idea and concepts of the original initiators (Platinum Parking Management, and Integrated Parking Managers).
They reminded both President and the minister, of a subsisting court judgment mandating FCTA to pay damages as penalty for illegally truncating the project involving the two companies resulting in lost of funds running into several millions due to the abrupt disengagement of the two companies.
Both CEOs of the companies in the petition, while narrating their ordeal in the hands of top FCTA officials, explained how they returned to the country during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, and put all the structure for the On Street parking management project in place.
According to Olarenwaju: “At the onset of democracy in 1999, the then President Olusegun Obasanjor invited people in Diaspora when we tried to romance his government. He said we should come back home, bring all our ideas, and invest in the country. This gingered us to come back home, and looking at the esthetics, the design, and the road network of Abuja, we came on board with what we call ‘On Street Parking Management’ on the streets of Abuja in order to generate revenue for the FCT and also to create massive employment for the teaming youths of Nigeria.
“We had envisioned that one day the influx of vehicular movement in Abuja city will be uncontrollable. So, it was in order to have a plan in place that necessitated our coming up with ‘On street parking’ project for Abuja.
“We came with everything, we came with all our technical partners, we set up and tendered for the project. The then FCT Minister later set up a technical committee to look into the proposal after which we signed an agreement with them in 2010.
“When we started, we put all the street infrastructure in place, synergise and what have you. We did all the line marking on all the roads of Abuja. I and my partner, PPMS went back abroad and brought technical partners to set up all these infrastructures. We engaged thousands of Nigerians. My company alone engaged over 450 direct and indirect labour to start the project, same with my friend.
“We brought state-of-the-art applications to manage the projects and start setting everything up, until one day we saw two companies that took over the street of Abuja saying the Minister said they should drive us away from the streets.
“When they took over mayhem, chaos, and pandemonium broke out on the streets of Abuja. This was what led to Justice Peter Afe to place a suspension on the project abi nitio, because people took us and one of the illegal operators to court. And then the FCTA were told to go and get a proper traffic law to support the project,” he said.
Speaking on their demand from the FCTA leadership, Abdul said, “Our demand is that first and foremost our original spots allocated to us, Zone A, assigned to Integrated Parking Managers (IPM) and Zone B, assigned to Platinum Parking Management (PPM), should be given back to us.
“Our next demand is that our arbitration judiciary award should be paid because debtors are on our necks, most of the money we used in rolling out, almost 10 years now has not been serviced. So, we need money to pay off our debts while the remaining one will be put back into project.
“This is because as pioneers, and in the agreement we had with FCDA we have the right of first refusal. It’s in the agreement, and that agreement has been certified by a court of competent jurisdiction, so our agreement is valid and subsisting and anything contrary to that is against the law.
“Secondly, the arbitrary award is a legal thing that nobody can wish away except the court of competent jurisdiction. Since they have gone to the High Court and the High Court could not set it aside; the Court of Appeal did not set it aside, and even the Supreme Court will not set it aside because arbitration has a time limit. If you cannot do anything within those 90 days that means it’s only God that can intervene,” he stated.
