UK returnee decries FCTA demolition of £75,000 Abuja business premises

A Nigerian returnee investor, Charles Avwenagha, says he is considering relocating permanently to the United Kingdom and renouncing his Nigerian passport after a £75,000 loan he took there to fund his Abuja business went down the drain.

According to him, his establishment, Stopover Bar and Grill in Lokogoma, was demolished by the Federal Capital Territory Administration on Tuesday without formal notice.

“As I’m talking to you now, I’m actually thinking of counting my losses, packing my load and going back and tearing the Nigerian passport. I have friends in the UK that have done it. I’m thinking of that as I speak,” Avwenagha said.

He spoke in an interview on the rubble of his business, which was captured in a video report by Per Second News published on Thursday.

He said he had only acted on rumours making the rounds a week earlier that the FCT authorities were coming to reclaim the land.

“I heard rumours about a week ago that they were coming to claim this land from nowhere. Nobody gave me any notification. Nobody came to me with any form of notice,” he said.

He said he decided on his own to shut down the business on Sunday and began evacuating his equipment. By Tuesday morning, welders, carpenters and masons were on site dismantling structures when bulldozers arrived.

“Around 12-1 in the afternoon, bulldozers just came. They saw people on the roof, taking out roof, taking out wood, welders working. They told them to come down and bulldoze the whole place to the ground,” he said.

Avwenagha, who said he built the business one year and three months earlier, said he took the loan in the UK to invest in Nigeria after being encouraged to return home. He said he had never obtained a government contract and did not know anyone in government.

“I came with money from the UK to invest here. So I have to deal with that loan now. 84 staff. That’s what I was feeding here. It’s painful. I stood there and I watched it go. Nobody cares,” he said.

He questioned whether diaspora Nigerians should still be encouraged to invest in the country, citing the scale of job losses in Lokogoma alone.

“Are you telling me now to convince anybody to come from diaspora to invest in this country? Look at 84 people. In this place alone, I’m not exaggerating, at least 300 people have been jobless. Are you people saying they are creating jobs? Is this how you create jobs?” he said, listing nearby businesses, including Barbados, Amalashita, RM’s Gym, Hunter’s and Ari’s, that he said had also gone down.

The manager of Stopover Bar and Grill, Muktar Yahaya, corroborated the account, saying workers were still trying to move out property when the demolition team arrived and chased them off the site. Other staff, including Eze Chidimma, also gave tearful accounts of the sudden loss of their jobs.

The Per Second News crew visited the site in Lokogoma, where the report showed rubble from the demolished business alongside the accounts of the investor and his staff.

The FCT authorities have carried out a series of demolitions across Abuja in recent months, targeting structures the administration says were illegally built on government land.

The Minister of Federal Capital Territory Nysome Wike
has repeatedly defended the exercises, saying they are aimed at protecting lives and property and restoring Abuja’s master plan, and has vowed to continue them despite pushback from affected residents, lawmakers and civil society groups.

The Senate had in December 2024 asked the Federal Capital Development Authority to halt further demolitions except those ordered by courts of competent jurisdiction, following the outcry that trailed the exercises.

Wike, however, insisted there was no going back, describing those flagged as land grabbers and dismissing accusations of blackmail from critics.