Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Apo, Abuja has declared the park and pay policy of the FCT Administration as illegal.
The declaration was made by Justice Peter Affen of the High Court, Apo, on Thursday morning in a suit filed by a private savings and loan firm in the Nigerian capital.
The judge ordered an immediate stop to the park and pay policy in the Abuja city centre.
According to a report by PREMIUM TIMES, the FCTA had hired four firms – Automaten Technik Haumann Nigeria, ATB; Safe Parking Limited, SPL; Integrated Parking Services limited, IPS; and Platinum Parking Management Services, PPMS – to collect parking fees from motorists in different parts of the city centre.
Under the policy, motorists who wish to park at designated locations are made to pay fees ranging from N50 to N500 depending on how long they want to leave their vehicles parked there.
However, the brazen manner with which the agents at such designated parking areas clamped car owners’ tyres, most times on questionable grounds, thereby forcing motorists to part with several thousands of naira to the officials, elicited cries of extortion and fraud.
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