Residents of Gbagyi Villa, a community of about 3,000 houses in Kaduna State, have appealed to Governor Nasir El-Rufai to rescind his decision to demolish their homes. They begged him not to render them destitute.
El-Rufai, last week, vowed to demolish the villa because according to him, they encroached on the Kaduna Polytechnic land.
Men, women and children made the appeal yesterday during a peaceful protest to prevail upon the governor.
The protesters carried placards, reading: “We want development and not demolition”; “We are not criminals”; “El-Rufai, leave us alone”.
They called on people of goodwill to prevail on the governor to act within the law and not engage the rule of might.
Chairman of Gbagyi Villa Property Owners Association, Chris Obodumu Abba, who led the protest, said: “It was on this same land that we were raised by our forefathers and it is the only place we know as home. We have become a community living together happily with other Nigerians. It was part of our community land that government took forcefully, without compensation, and built Kaduna Polytechnic.
“We have been living happily with the polytechnic since the boundary dispute was resolved in 2011 by the late Governor Patrick Yakowa, until late 2015 to March 4, when El-Rufai, through KASUPDA, pasted demolition notices on our buildings. They alleged that we breached sections 26 and 27 of the KASUPDA Law by not obtaining planning permissions before building.
“Despite a court order restraining the governor, KASUPDA, and others from demolishing houses pending the determination of the case, El-Rufai, on July 21, stormed our community with security men, threatening to demolish Gbagyi villa with the force of arms.
“He also called us “criminals”. We are shocked and dismayed that the governor, who rode to power upon our mandate and the political slogan that he would end impunity and ensure the rule of law, is today not only a preacher of impunity, but a practitioner of impunity and disrespects the rule of law.”
They, therefore, urged the governor not to render them homeless in a land saturated with internally displaced persons.