By Adadareporters
The shareholders of Abuja Markets Management Limited has sacked its managing director, Abubakar Usman Faruk, after a fourteen-year reign in the affairs of the facility management company. His sack followed an alleged office abuse.
Confirming the sack of the MD, Engr Abbas Yakubu, who was the acting managing director of the agency before a court reinstated Mr Faruk, told our reporter that “indeed he has been sacked as the managing director.”
Created in 2005, AMML has had one substantive managing director and another in an acting capacity until the takeover of Abubakar Faruk in 2009 – a position he held until August 2020 when the immediate past FCT minister, Mallam Muhammed Musa Bello, redeployed him on issues bordering on alleged corruption and land racketeering.
However, within these three years of redeployment from AMML, it was learnt that Abubakar Faruk ‘earned’ his full salaries and allowances, without putting up as much as a day’s job for the company.
At the twilight of the immediate past administration, the embattled MD dragged the minister, FCTA, AMML and AICL to court over what he considered as an unlawful redeployment.
While this case remained pending at the National Industrial Court, Mr Faruk also approached the Federal High Court to challenge the legality of the then newly reconstituted Board of AMML.
The Federal High Court had in a ruling on July 11 2023 granted the prayers of Abubakar Faruk recognizing him as a director of the company, amongst others reliefs.
Though it was not clear if the order actually reinstated him since it was not part of his prayers, the embattled MD on Wednesday afternoon stormed the AMML head office, armed with the court order and security personnel and took over the office of the managing director.
But in what close watchers described as a move to put a stop to the unending public opprobrium brought to it by Alh. Faruk, the company’s shareholders, in an Extraordinary General Meeting this Monday, unanimously resolved to relieve Alh. Abubakar Usman Faruk of his position as the managing director /CEO of Abuja Markets Management Limited, with immediate effect.
Though Alh. Faruk remains a director of the company, the shareholders removed him as the MD/CEO for ‘services no longer required’.
Our reporter, who has privileged information on the outcome of the meeting, gathered that the shareholders were miffed by the sheer effrontery of the sacked MD in challenging their authority as the ultimate owner of the company after what they considered a rare opportunity he had enjoyed as the longest serving head of any FCTA –owned Companies.
Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML) shareholders present at the meeting were representatives of the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT) and Abuja Investments Company Limited (AICL) .
