Mixed feelings as activities pick up at Emab plaza amid tight security

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

As normal business activities continue to pick up at the Emab shopping Plaza, in Wuse II area of Abuja, some shop owners and customers at the shopping mall have expressed mixed feelings over the development.

While some expressed their happiness over the resumption of normal activities even amid tight security in the area, others said they were still living in despair, whenever they are around the plaza.

Peoples Daily recalls that barely two months after two explosions rocked the Nyanya Motor Park, a suburb area of the capital city another deadly explosion rocked Emab Plaza, killing no fewer than 22

people and injured several others.

The blast occurred along the corridors of the gate of the busy Plaza, located beside Banex shopping complex Banex Plaza, opposite Usman bin Affan Mosque, when a bomb-laden car went off, following failed attempt to drive through the gate of the shopping mall.

A customer, Miss Jummai Celebs, who complained that the plaza is a bit scanty not as before, however said since the bomb blast that happened, the managers of the plaza have increased their security consciousness.

“Now we see that people going in and out are being checked, and no illegal parking or hawking is allowed along  the corridors of the gate as usually,” she noted.

One of the shop owners at the Plaza, Mr. Yusuf Mu’azu, emphasized that even though security measures have been beefed up at the place, customers are scared of coming around, resulting to the business

moving at a slow pace unlike before.

He said, even individuals within the vicinity of the shopping mall have become more conscious about what happens around them.

He says: “We have security men around and the security guard check people entering the plaza. And even though customers are scared of coming around like before, the business is still moving at a slow

pace.”

Similarly, one Esther Ezekiel says, “The mall is now well protected, no space for people to sit down at the gate to do petty businesses, and there is a provision for every vehicle to checked.

“The bomb blast has thought many shop owners around a lot of lessons, as they have provided much needed security measures.”

“There are Police men by the frontage of the plaza, while private security guards are doing their duty of checking customers and cars owners, it a good step the authority have taken to repose confidence

on the people.

“I know as time goes on, our customers will not be afraid of coming to do business with us again. We are assuring them of their safety,” Chinedu Uche, a shop owner expressed.