There is tension at Owalla Uratta in Owerri North Local Government of Imo State, as bulldozers have demolished the community, leaving residents without farmland and their crops worth millions of Naira.
Residents comprising women, men and youths, who trooped out en masse at Owalla Community Primary School, Uratta to stage a peaceful protest, described the act as an invasion.
It was like a war zone, said one resident, whose farmland was destroyed by bulldozers on Monday.
“We were given no warning and had no time to salvage our crops. Everything we had was destroyed,” he added.
The Nation correspondent, who visited the community yesterday, saw bulldozers pulling down palm trees, cassava and yam stems. Women tried to salvage some of the uprooted crops.
Security personnel guarded the scene.
Mike Mbata, a youth leader, said: “We woke up one morning to see caterpillars accompanied by some security personnel driving into our community.
Most of us rushed to the site to see what was going on. To our surprise, we just saw bulldozers crushing our crops, including vegetables, cassava, yam and palm trees because we are predominately farmers. We tried to inquire, but the policemen did not allow us to come close.
“So we retreated and went to our traditional ruler and president general. They all claimed they were not aware of what was going on. We are law-abiding people. We went to court to get an injunction, but they ignored it and continued to destroy our crops.”
A widow, Deaconess May Obiyor, said the bulldozers destroyed everything she cultivated this year.
She alleged: “Many of us were teargassed, brutalised and injured. Some are now hospitalised. We are appealing to Governor Hope Uzodimma to intervene. He is a compassionate man; we know he will never be happy when we are starving and when our children are not going to school as a result of lack of money to train them.”
Contacted, Commissioner for Land, Noble Atulegwu, said the government did not pull down anybody’s structure.
“The instruction is clear, don’t pull down any structure or house unless that house or structure falls within the road and design and we will mark it and compensate the person. If the house is not within the road, all we do is to capture it and give that person a legal backing. You may own a land, but you don’t have title over the land and only the government gives you title.”
He said the protesters had been compensated.
“The issue is, anywhere that government goes to acquire land, the people will protest. The people protesting have been compensated.”
Imo State continues crackdown on kidnap suspects by demolishing their houses, reports OKODILI NDIDI
The Imo State government is throwing everything at suspected kidnappers. Many of them have been smoked out of their dens and arrested, while the hunt for others is on. But the government will not slow down on the crackdown. Buildings owned by on-the-run suspects are being pulled down. The word is out that there is no room for criminals in the state.
The bulldozer action codenamed ‘Operation Oshebee’ is headed by the state Deputy Governor Prince Eze Madumere. It is one of the measures adopted by the State Security Council against suspected criminals.
Since the operation started, over 100 buildings owned by suspected kidnappers have been demolished in different parts of the state, especially in Ohaji-Egbema Council Area, where kidnappers had majority of their dens where victims were kept allegedly in connivance with the villagers and village heads who are forced to take oath of secrecy.
In the latest operation at Mgirishi and Umuagwu communities in Ohaji-Egbema council, perhaps the state’s most ambitious effort, over 15 buildings belonging to suspected kidnappers were reduced to heaps of ruins.
Intent on keeping criminals out of the state, the government is collaborating with the police and other security agencies in this operation.
Madumere who supervised the demolition alongside the state Commissioner of Police Taiwo Lakanu, said, “The owners of the buildings that were demolished were caught in the act of kidnapping, armed robbery and other criminal activities including those belonging to their collaborators. Prince Madumere stressed the need to shun the wrong attitude of abetting crime as there are punishments for collaborators and those whose facilities are used for criminal activities.
He warned the youth to shun crime, adding that the state government will not spare anyone who will engage in any act that will undermine the security of the state.
The Deputy Governor challenged the youths to take advantage of the state government’s youth empowerment programme like free education and several skill acquisition programmes to adequately prepare themselves for the challenges of the future, instead of taking to criminality.
He commended the Commissioner of Police, the Army, Civil Defence and other security agencies for their collaborative efforts in ensuring that kidnappers and other criminal elements are kept out of business in the state.
Speaking further to the mammoth crow of villagers who gathered to witness the demolition, Madumere restated the commitment of the Rescue Mission Administration to stamp out crime from the state and make it comfortable for investors.
The Commissioner of Police in his brief speech said that “the resolve to take the battle to the criminals has become necessary so as to stop them from operating at all.
He revealed that a lot of intelligence has gone into the new approach to combating crime.
Lakanu who expressed joy with the crime-free status of the state, advised that the status should be sustained to avert possible security challenges that may hinder development policies of the state government, especially now that every state of the federation is yearning for investment.
He assured that the measure will also serve as a deterrent to others.
The Commissioner of Police further commended the State Governor for improving the security infrastructures in the State and for rapid response in managing some situations.
Meanwhile, some of the villagers who spoke with newsmen commended the Deputy Governor and the security operatives, while promising to always give vital information that will further help rid the communities of all undesirable elements.
A community of over 3,000 houses in Kaduna State is in danger of demolition, writes ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE
Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai has since proved what he can do with a bulldozer. Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) can testify. So can residents of the state he governs.
The Demolition Man has waded into an old cold war between the management of Kaduna Polytechnic and Gbagyi Villa, a community of over 3,000 houses alleged to have been built on the institution’s land. You guessed it: el-Rufai’s bulldozers have come into the picture. And the people whose houses could be pulled down have protested, hoping the evil day does not come.
Before 2011, there was no landmark demarcation between the Sabon Tasha campus of institution’s land and its neighbouring communities. The situation apparently gave room for the alleged monumental encroachment.
Though, previous management of the institution had made efforts to stop the encroachment, it received little or no support from the government, until 2011 when the late Governor Patrick Yakowa mediated and asked the polytechnic to build a fence to prevent further encroachment. The school apparently not satisfied with the situation took up the matter in 2015, shortly after the election of Governor el-Rufai.
Governor El-Rufai has however vowed to reclaim the institution’s land for it, despite a suit filed in the state High Court by members of the community to stop the Governor’s planned action.
Kaduna Polytechnic, formerly known as Technical Institute, Kaduna, came into existence after the Northern Nigeria Executive Council’s meeting of 17th August, 1962. It became Kaduna Polytechnic in 1968 by the Federal Government Decree No. 20 of 1968, which was revised in 1979 by Decree .No. 79. In 1991, the institution was taken over by the Federal Government under Decree No. 40 of the same year.
The polytechnic has four campuses spread across the Kaduna metropolis: Tudun Wada, Ungwan Rimi, Barnawa and Sabon Tasha. The contentious Sabon Tasha campus remains the only hope for the polytechnic to expand, especially for its proposed conversion to Federal University of Technology.
Governor el-Rufai recently visited Gbagyi Villa where he said there was no going back on the planned demolition of the community.
He told journalists, “Kaduna Polytechnic was allocated the land 40 years ago for one of the polytechnic campuses but unfortunately, nearly 70% of its land has been encroached [on] by illegal squatters.”
The governor said his administration cannot condone illegality, warning that in Kaduna nobody can hide behind religion or ethnic group to break the law and get away with it.
“The government will go through a process and give everyone opportunity to show that she or he has a title to the land and approval to build. If you don’t have these two, the law will apply and we will take the building down”.
“It is unfortunate that some people have been deceived into thinking that this land is available to sell to anyone it is unfortunate. And in our system we are going to investigate and find all those who are involved in this and will be dealt with by the government.
Barely a week after the governor’s declaration, thousands of residents and house owners in the community staged a peaceful protest, appealing to the governor not to render them destitute.
The protesters raised placards with inscriptions including: ‘we want development and not demolition’ and ‘we are not criminals’ and ‘El-Rufai leave us alone’ among others. They also called on people of goodwill to help prevail on Governor el-Rufai to act within the law and not engage the rule of might.
Leading the protest, Chairman, Gbagyi Villa Property Owners Association, Chris Obodumu Abba said, “It was on this same land that we were raised by our forefathers and it is the only place we know as home in Nigeria. We have become a community living together happily with other Nigerians from different parts of the country. It was part of our community land that government took over forcefully and built Kaduna Polytechnic without compensation”
Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi has inaugurated 13 bulldozers procured by the caretaker chairmen of the 13 local government areas of the state for rice production and road construction.
The governor expressed joy at the development, thanking God for his administration’s success so far.
He said when he took office, his administration bought similar equipment worth about N1.8 billion for similar purposes.
Umahi said it was a joint agreement between the state and local governments that every local council has one grader and a bulldozer in order to have access roads and also to prepare their farms for rice production.
He added that every council had already got one caterpillar.
He urged the council bosses to deploy the equipment to work and ensure that they generated employment through the programme.
“You should be able to train civil servants. Each of the bulldozers and graders should be able to have three trainees each attached to whoever that is going to be the operator,”he added.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Local GovernmentS and Chieftaincy Matters, Mr Samuel Okoronkwo, a lawyer, explained that the 13 bulldozers cost N442 million and 40% out of the total cost has been paid while the remaining 60% would be paid in installments within six months.
Mr. Okoronkwo also said 13 graders purchased by the local government council chairmen will arrive in the state soon.
He assured the governor of the commitment and readiness of the council areas to key into the agricultural policies of the state government to boost food production and internally generated revenue for the state.
Some of the victims said the demolition was hasty but the government insisted that due notice was served on illegal occupants of school land. BLESSING OLAIFA reports that the recovery left shop owners in pains.
•Scenes of the demolition
The victims of the second phase of the demolition plan were the unwelcome occupants of a Kaduna State school land. In the first phase, in the first 100 days of the Malam Nasir el-Rufai administration, 39 residential buildings were pulled down in the university town, Zaria. That exercise triggered panic and anguish. The government explained that the demolished buildings were illegally built on land allocated to public schools.
The second phase has caused probably just as much grief. The area targeted by the government bulldozers was a mini-printers’ paradise. Mr Ibe Emeka who owned three printing shops there, all of which were pulled down, said there were over 231 stalls to which no less than 1000 people laid claim, each shop having about five workers. Emeka reckoned that millions of naira was lost in the demolition.
What attracted them to the school in the first place? It must be its centrality, being in the Kaduna metropolis. Otherwise, the school, Government Secondary School, Doka, whose land they were accused of occupying illegally, has pretty little to offer. It is decrepit, its space grossly underutilised.
The printers and shop owners have been counting their losses since the demolition. They woke up to see government bulldozers around their shops.
The government had ordered everyone whose buildings were standing on land belonging to public schools to show proof why the buildings should be allowed to stand. Some of those who were afraid of being affected by the exercise went to court, trying to stop the exercise. But the bulldozers went to work again even when the case was pending in court. Some of the shop owners are of the view that they were not informed of the exercise, while some of them claimed to have received extension in their quit notice. The shop owners said they were not aware of any warning issued before the government bulldozer moved to the sight of the school premises.
Government officials insisted that warnings were issued in July. According to them, the warning issued in July covered all parts of the state where government lands have been illegally taken over by unauthorized persons.
The demolition at Government Secondary School, Doka, reportedly caught many residents and owners of shops unawares. The areas affected were Muri Road by Lagos Street, Lokoja Road, Gwari Road and Cameroun Road. All the shops were pulled down by the government bulldozer under the supervision of officials of the Kaduna State Urban Development Agency.
Emeka, whose three shops were demolished, said,
“We have over 1000 people affected by this development with millions of naira being lost on a daily basis. We were surprised beyond words when the government bulldozer moved here with government officials and security agents. It was shocking that a democratic government could act in a way that suggests that the people do not matter, or could one say it was because they have got what they wanted and we have to live with this for the next four years”.
He said that assuming the government had the best of intentions, the way and manner it carried out the demolition showed that the government no longer has feelings for the masses as hundreds of families are affected by the action of the government.
Emeka lamented that what happened showed that government can wake up any day and send people away from their homes and places where they are earning their legitimate income.
When The Nation visited the school, the buildings were old, unkempt and dilapidated. In fact weeds have taken over one of the abandoned staircases of the building. There was damaged school furniture packed inside classrooms, while students take lectures on one end inside the classrooms with cracked blackboards. The school has capacity to take 400-500 students, but the patronage is very poor. It was discovered that the shop owners and printers took advantage of the neglect of the school to help themselves. The school was not protected with perimeter fence to discourage would-be encroachers on the facility. It was gathered that local government officials also colluded with the businessmen to allocate small portions of land surrounding the school to entrepreneurs who are desperate to own shops in the city centre.
One of the entrepreneurs who is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Malam Mohammed Nasir said the government did not give adequate notice regarding the exercise. According to him, a government that was elected by the people only a few months ago should not have made demolition of buildings and shops its priority.
“People are suffering in this part of the country. There are problems of unemployment, insecurity, armed robbery, kidnapping, etc, and the people that are directly linked with these problems are the youths. Yet a government that had barely spent four months in office is compounding the problems”, he lamented.
Malam Nasir said he was baffled that the el-Rufai government could not look at the far reaching implications of demolition peoples shops and houses at a period the country is plagued with inadequate shelter and poverty. He said it was unfortunate that the governor and his team were concern about the aesthestics of Kaduna city and its environs. He said it was painful that the government failed to carry people along taking into consideration the fact that the masses are also stakeholders in the country’s journey to development.
The Assistant Head Teacher of the school, Mr Leo Danjuma said the demolition of the shops was a welcome development. He said the school authority had complained over the years that the presence of the shops around the schools was making the environment not condusive for learning. But that their complaints were never taken serious.
He said, “We are happy that all the shops were demolished because once Power Holding Company of Nigeria takes light and the printers put on their electricity generators, the next thing we do is to close the school for the day because you cannot teach with the noise pollution of the atmosphere. We have been held hostage by these people for a long time. Thank God, we have a corrective regime and everybody will learn his or her lesson, including local government officials who allegedly allocated the land to them and have been collecting taxes from the shop owners and printers”.
Mr Danjuma called on the state government to expedite action on the complete rehabilitation of the school, saying whenever there is rainfall, the school closes for the day because the roofs are leaking and there are always fears that part of the building structures that have become weak might collapse. He said government should also look into the problems associated with the on-going verification exercise in the state as majority of teachers have not been paid in the past three months. He said morale is low among teachers and the situation is compounded by an unfriendly environment for teaching and learning.
The spokesman of the state government, Samuel Aruwan told journalists that the exercise was not a witch-hunt. He also dismissed insinuations that the state government was insensitive to the plight of the people, insisting that the efforts of the present administration were geared towards recovering all government lands that were illegally acquired. The Nation observed that most of the people affected by the demolition were printers and shops owners dealing in printing materials such as ink, papers, and plates. Others are business centres, and restaurants. Many of them were seen moving out whatever remained of their properties from the sight of the demolished shops. It was gathered that majority of them are non-indigenes and have been in the business for over 20 years.
Aruwan later circulated a statement saying the interim chairman of Kaduna North Local Government Area Alhaji G. A. Kurfi has been suspended and that “local government councils have no role in the land recovery process beyond gathering and forwarding information to the appropriate agencies”
The statement further said, “Recent actions undertaken within Kaduna North local government council under the direction of the interim chairman did not comply with the guidelines for the land recovery exercise.”
One of the printers who gave his name as Elder Oni said the government should have relocated them to printers village with modern facilities to work rather than throw them out of business. Elder Oni who said he is married with four children said government action would have negative impacts on his family as he would have to look for something to do or manage in another person’s shop within the area before he could attend to other pressing family challenges such as payment of school fees.
Elder Oni advised the government not only to consult widely before embarking on such mission, but also to provide alternative shops and accommodation for the people. He called on President Buhari to intervene regarding the approach of Governor El-Rufai to demolition of buildings and shops in Kaduna state. He appealed that government should not worsen their economic predicament with policy that would render them homeless or jobless.
The presence of heavy bulldozers, excavators, front loaders, dump trucks and terrain cranes bear witness that serious construction work is going on. Daily, there is that motion-sound that informs even a blind person that someone is at work. Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, is quietly changing its face. One man to thank is Darius Dickson Ishaku, the governor.
Ishaku, a consummate architect and town planner, had set the tone and direction of his administration on day one when he took the oath of office. He has often said Jalingo is more rural than urban as it should be.
Heavy equipment, which Jalingo residents call ‘DDI bulldozers’ are seen everywhere in the state capital working. The Palace Way, which runs through the Jalingo daily market, is receiving the most attention. Shoddy buildings with rusted roofs along the Palace Way have been cleared to widen the street and for new edifices to be built with long span.
The PW Nigeria Limited is the contractor. This giant construction company had been contracted by former governor Danbaba Suntai since 2007. PW had however, stopped work and was pulling its equipment out of the state until Ishaku took over the mantle of leadership and reopened discussion and re-negotiation with the company. They were abandoned in the last two years when Suntai suffered severe injuries when a plane he flew crashed in 2012.
PW is now re-mobilised to site. Besides Jalingo, they are back to work on the Bali-Serti-Gembu Road which was constructed by the Babangida regime. The Taraba State Road Construction and Maintenance Agency (TARCMA) is also re-mobilise to rehabilitate some 6.5 kilometer local government township roads.
The DDI bulldozers in Taraba reminds us of the El-Rufai Bulldozers in Abuja few years ago. Not everyone is happy to have Ishaku’s “new and beautiful Taraba.” Tears are running down the cheeks of those whose properties have been pulled down by the DDI bulldozers.
“We didn’t vote this man to destroy our structures,” they cried out. It is the sweet-bitter story. And it is not clear whether those affected would be compensated by the state government. All make-shift apartments inform of shops have been cleared. Now, you can stand in one end of a street and see someone several metres away.
Another remarkable feature hallmarking Jalingo city as an emerging beautiful enclave is its traffic lights. Ishaku ensures that the lights are working, as taps too are running under his watch. Motorists are now stopped at junctions by the red light, until the green gives them way. Traffic officials now have less work to do. At night -when darkness comes, street lights shine to enthrall a beautiful grey or tan colour. These were absent when Taraba state was created from the defunct Gongola in 1991.
Rev. Jolly Nyame, who became the first democratically elected governor in 1992, met Jalingo as a typical rural settlement. From that time till date, what is referred to as the “City Beautiful Movement” may not have been speedy here, compared to the cosmopolitan states of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano, but it has been stunning of recent.
The improvement of the aesthetics and grandeur in Jalingo, accompanied with increased population, has reshaped the moral and civic virtues of the Jalingo community.
Young men and women, who receive auxiliary pay cheques in the Ministry of Environment, work as cleaners to sanitise the main arteries to make them sparkle. You will marvel at its contrasts from what it used to be. Its architectural range reflects modern touches. And now the climax can be reached, with an architect cum town planner in the saddle. Sources say the governor may go a step further, to totally implement the Jalingo Master Plan. Jalingo sprang up in defiance to its master plan -decades before it became a state capital. “This is just a little start and people are beginning to cry, what if the master plan is to be implemented in totality? You know even our government offices were not built according to the plan,” a source from the State House told The Nation.
That is to say, at 24 years of creation, which the state celebrated in August, the urbanisation of the state capital has influenced both demographic social reform and contemporary planning of settlements, particularly in its heartbeat. Magami and Mayo-Gwoi areas are good examples.
The state capital had taken off in disregard to its Master Plan. Residents had used local implements like hoes and shovels to open up foot paths. They built residences on sanitary lines and dumped refuse in water channels that blocked run-offs. There was no descriptive settlement pattern, and raw sewages were openly dumped to pollute the town. Its environment was always enveloped by a putrid smell of meat and animal and human defecates.
Now, some good roads, paved streets and curvets are being built, to stimulate the rise of grandiose structures and exquisite complexes like modern shopping plazas.
Ishaku has said he has come to “rescue Taraba” from all of that. And the change has been remarkably rapid within the first 100 days of his administration despite cries of fierce economic crunch and unprecedented debt burden inherited from the previous government.
Jalingo city, like every other capital city, is now more of the people, than the physical precinct; the social and economic life, their businesses and where they unwind after the daily official work etc. There is a modified pattern of buying and selling, a departure from the hitherto uproar by a rowdy grasping consumers or goods vendors struggling to make brisk business.
More tributary streets are springing up, adorning the face of the Hammaruwa Way -the main artery in the state capital.
“If I have N9 billionI will hit nine major roads running. What I need is peace; give me peace and I will give you development,” Ishaku said at a dinner he organised in Government House Jalingo to mark the 55th Independence anniversary.
Indigenes of Kpaduma communities in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to save them from officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and Development Control who allegedly harass and threat to demolish their houses.
The indigenes through their leader, Hon. Bala Iyah, made this call during a press briefing on the incessant attempts by officials of the FCDA and Development Control to demolish their houses, despite a court order restraining them from doing so.
The indigenes who lamented over the recent demolition attempt by the FCT authority, explained that they have been going through rough times in the hands of the two FCT agencies, since the administration of the past FCT Minister, Sen. Bala Mohammed, where their houses were marked and demolished without due process.
“We thought that after the administration of Sen. Bala Mohammed, things will change for the better and peace will return to this community, since the slogan of the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is based on ‘Change’. But, to our disappointment, things still remain the same way it was, because those two departments are still constantly harrassing our people and threatening our lives.
“We are original inhabitants of Abuja and Kpaduma communities have been our ancestral home right from the days of our forefathers up until today. Hence, after bringing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to Abuja by the federal government, nobody has engaged us in any move or discussion of resettlement or compensation.
“Because of our simplicity and peace loving nature, our farmlands were forcefully taken over by the government and private allottees without compensations, and now our residencial buildings are at the danger of been taken away too. The question is if we are removed from our houses without proper alternatives, where do we go to?” he said.
According to Iyah, Kpaduma indigenes are not Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), “we are not trespassers, strangers or settlers. We have been in Abuja for over 200years, before the coming of the Capital City to Abuja. We are true Nigerians and we should be treated as such.
“Nobody should treat us as foreigners in our own country. We are therefore appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to save our souls, by coming to the aide of Kpaduma inidgenes and the indigenes of the entire FCT, to avoid us been turn into refugees in our country.
“We are also appealing to President Buhari to consider an indigene of the FCT, for the position of an FCT Minister, because he or she will know more about the plight of the people and how to improve on the living standard of every indigene and resident of Abuja,” he said.
The sight and sound of bulldozers are as familiar as the destruction and tears they leave behind. GRACE OBIKE reports on the latest demolition in the Federal Capital Territory’s (FCT’s) suburb
You could say they are the scourge of residents of the less glitzy parts of the nation’s capital. They have torn down homes, shops and what have you in Nyanya, Kubwa, Apo, Dutse and several other areas of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). And everywhere the bulldozers went, confusion, tears and questions followed.
So it was in Jikwoyi where residents were going about their business when the monstrous motorised machines rolled into view and promptly started pulling down homes and shops.
Several residents claimed the notification for demolition was only given for shops but when the bulldozers came, they took down houses, rendering a lot of people homeless.
Tears have been flowing
Some claimed that not only were they not given prior notice of the demolition but that some people were still indoors when their houses were being demolished and that some others were not even home to move out their belongings.
Most of the residents said they duly bought their land from indigenous Abuja people, adding that some of the bulldozers’ victims had lived in their houses for over 15 years.
Mr Mike James said, “They just came to our area and began demolishing our houses without giving us any form of notice, we have taken them to court and we hope to be compensated. My friend just completed a N5m house and was so excited to pack in with his family when they just came and demolished his house like that.
“Yes, they said that the land belongs to a General and we are supposed to evacuate his land but, at least, they should have given us adequate notice to find alternatives; we did not intentionally encroach on the General’s land, it was sold to us by natives and some of us have been living here for over 15 years, no one told us anything about the General when it was being sold to us,” he concluded.
Many residents have since been lamenting the fact that they have now found themselves homeless and most of their livelihood taken away from them.
They said it is difficult putting themselves together. Some of them have been squatting with family and friends since the demolition. Some others protested at the National Assembly the day after the demolition, urging lawmakers and demanding justice and compensation after they claimed to have filed a suit against the FCT Development Control and the Nigerian Army for molesting them when they tried to protect their properties.
Linus Uboyi, a tenant in one of the demolished buildings, lamented: “My rent had not expired, it was still remaining two months and I was actually looking forward to renewing my rent in the house because I enjoyed living there.
“No one told me of any notice from development control although our house and several other buildings had been marked with the usual X, which is a common mark for demolition; we did not take it seriously because everyone knows that the fact that a house is marked does not mean that it will be demolished.
“I wish they had given us proper notice, maybe I wouldn’t have renewed my rent, or I would have gotten somewhere else to pack into instead of being disgraced in this manner.
“I don’t know anything about a court case and nether will I embark on protesting over a property that does not belong to me, so now I’m simply squatting with my church member and will hopefully get a place for I and my family.”
Authorities of the FCT Development Control on the other hand denied the accusation, saying that it is impossible for them to embark on demolition without giving adequate notice to residents. Public Relations Officer (PRO) Kalu Emetu, explained to Abuja Review that the Jikwoyi demolition was embarked upon as a result of encroachment and the deliberate takeover of plots which the residents had no title right.
“One of the mandates of the Department is to give approval to intending developers drawing. When such approval is about to be given, it is also the duty of the Department to ensure that such plot does not have any ecunberance and where such exist, it beholves on the Department to remove such, and that was what happened at Jikwoi a suburb of Abuja.
“One important thing to note is that before any demolition exercise, the Department ensures that it exhaust all the notices as prescribed by the Urban and Regional Law and that of FCT Act of 1999. There are three notices: Stop Work, Quit Site, before the Demolition. It is only when Demolition notice is issued that you begin to hear such defaulters weeping up sentiments everywhere.
“A period of 21 days is given after the first notice while a minimum of 10 days is also given after the second notice. The law does not make it compulsory for the Department to give any day, the demolition can start as soon as the demolition notice is issued. All these notices were exhausted in November, 2014,just as the exercise could not be carried immediately because of the elections.ý”
He also added that “In the case of Jikwoyi on the 12th, there were many reasons why the Department had embarked on the demolition exercise. The area had a planned lay out but occupied mainly by people who do not have any title to any of the plots. With this, many built on right of way, some on water ways, many built under high tension thereby exposing many to danger. Some genuine developers who had drawing for approval had progressed and gone to court and obtained order for the Department remove most of the houses that were seen as illegal structures.”
If there is anything traders at Kubwa Market want above everything else, it is to preserve their investments by stopping bulldozers from tearing down the facility. They have the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and the dreaded private developers to contend with.
The FCTA, in early December, served the traders a seven-day ultimatum to quit. The sellers took to the streets, protesting the authority’s action and plan. They know the implications of private developers coming in. Bulldozers will pull down the market, throwing them into all sorts of trouble. The FCT is replete with such cases and they want to avoid it.
What are they doing about it? A lot. Apart from the protest, the traders have also offered to build the satellite town market themselves rather than have developers set foot in it. They equally briefed a lawyer who wasted no time in suing the FCTA, hoping to stop it in its tracks.
Although the plan to demolish the market was given almost the same time as the Dutse market which was demolished last year, the Area Council, according to the chairman, Hon. Peter Ushafa felt that it will be better to demolish each market separately and give those at Kubwa, some time to get ready after that of Dutse before the market was brought down.
The traders in their protest stated that the Area Council had not provided them with an alternative place to trade before the demolition, they said that the market was their only means of livelihood and that even though they support development, it should not be at their peril.
In an interview with our correspondent, chairman of peace and security in Kubwa market, Cashmere Obialor, said “What we are saying is that the Kubwa market has been in existence for more than 30 years, it is not a virgin land that you will say, go and clear like that. People feed their families from here and take refuge in this market; there are many widows who feed their families from this market and now they are coming to demolish this place without giving us an alternative place.
“What we are trying to tell the government is that we are Nigerians and citizens of this country; many of us don’t have any other place to turn to, by the time they come and demolish the market, it will mean that they want to cause more crime in this Kubwa. They need to provide an alternative place to the traders if they want to develop the market pending when they finish and the traders can return.
“If the government goes ahead to insist on demolition after this seven days, then they should be ready to kill the whole people in this market because we are not going to run, when they come out with their solders and their arms, nobody is going to run, they will have to kill to the last person in this market before they can demolish it, we have not agreed on anything with anybody, they have not even tried to get out stands, if they call us, we are the leaders of the market, we will tell them how we want our people to be carried along.”
Public Relations Officer, Bwari Area Council Dauda Basha in a telephone interview confirmed the demolition notice placed at the market but denied the knowledge of a dispute between the council and traders or they had been protesting.
He said that discussions had been going on between the council and traders for long about the planned demolition and the Area Council had actually gone ahead and found the traders an alternative place to trade until the modern market is complete.
He added, “The area council is working on a place to take them to right now, the space we have is is too small so when we get an alternative place, they will be relocated but we have given the place up to private developers to develop and they already have their equipments on the ground which is expensive to maintain.”
The Lawyer who spoke in a phone interview on behalf of the tradersý Barr Maxwell Oparaý, said that they have served a court notice to the Abuja Metropolitan Council and Bwari Area Council and that any attempt to demolish the market will be a breach of peace and will be met with stiff resistance.
His words: “These traders in the first instance are there because the government allocated papers to them, they were called for the verification of their papers which they went for to confirm they were truly allocated and they paid the necessary fee that they were asked to pay.
“The traders are asking that if the government wants to build a modern market for them, they should give them the plan of the kind of market they want to build, the traders are ready to build it with government supervision, the traders are ready to build the Kubwa market with their money, all they are asking, is the government’s support and plan.”
He also said, “ýThe allocation given to the traders was given by the Bwari Area Councilý, they went back to the Area Council to regularise the papers, why are they now being asked to vacate their shops?
“The council claimed that they were going to relocate them to a temporary site but when the traders arrived at the site, it was just a vacant land that looked like it was cleared by someone to build a house.
”We are suing Abuja Metropolitan Council under FCDAý and we have also taken the court notice to the Bwari Area Council, we have served the both of them a court order and we are asking the court to declare that they have no right to intrude on the market, that the court should declare that the Abuja traders are the owners of the market and that if the Kubwa traders decide to build the market, they will be allowed to build it and after it is completed, they will take over, we are now waiting for a court date to be fixed.
“The Kubwa market traders are peaceful set of people but any attempt by the Area Council, FCT administration or developers ýto demolish the market will amount to breech of peace, we have written to all of them that any attempt to demolish the market illegally will meet with stiff resistance and in the course of resistance, anything can happen, we pray it does not get to that point, they have called us for a meeting which was adjourned from the 24th of December 2014 and we are hoping for another meeting soon.”
Bulldozers from the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and Development Control have moved into Kpaduma communities, pulling down houses there.
On hand as the bulldozers moved were personnel of the FCDA alongside armed Joint Task Force team.
This was said to be in violation of a court injunction restraining the FCDA from demolishing houses in Kpaduma communities in the Asokoro district of Abuja.
Witnesses were said to have been confused and did all they could to prevent the demolition.
The residents were reportedly overpowered by the armed JTF who threatened to shoot them if they made any further move to prevent the sdemolition.
The JTF which consisted of over 15 officers of the Nigeria Army and about 16 officers of the police, were careful to remove their tags and emblems in order to forestall any identification, before they entered the community to carry out the action.
They positioned themselves in strategic areas to form a barricade against interference for the bulldozer demolishing the houses.
Secretary to the communities, Mr. Simon Baba-Yerima, who could not keep his tears from flowing freely, lamented the pains that the residents were subjected to as a result of the demolition carried out by the officials of FCDA, Development Control and the JTF personnel.
“This is really painful, provoking, disastrous and unacceptable; this is really an act of military cum civilian brutality against innocent Nigerians. Our people are thrown into unnecessary confusion because of this unannounced demolition exercise. This is really wicked and for the fact that our case is still in court.
“The people who entered our community introduced themselves as officials of FCDA and Development Control, in company of well armed JTF as if they were going for war, just to demolish our houses. This is unacceptable. Our matter is in court and again, they are violating the law of the land. Is it a crime that we are poor? This is our village and we have the right to have a peaceful life, just like we were before the inception of the FCT.
“I wonder why the FCDA officials are coming to demolish our houses, it is unfair. We do not have any more trust in the government, because, we are living in fear. The JTF had to beat up our youth and arrested over five of them, for no good reason, after they had carried out their assigned duties. This is a democratic government for God sake, not military, why are they treating us like animals?” Baba-Yerima lamented.
One of the affected residents, Joseph Madaki, explained how the JTF sprayed tear-gas on them and shot in the air to scare them away. “They tied up our people and told them to face the sun, beating them up as if they were criminals. This is very painful, why is this government allowing its citizens to be maltreated this way? We are suffering.
“The way they are treating us in this FCT is not fair, this is our land, where do they want us to go to? They want to push us out of our homeland, without making alternative provision for us. The worst part of this whole thing, is that the people doing all this things to us, have their villages in their various states and they want to remove us from our own. That is not fair,” he said.
When newsmen visited the office of Development Control to find out their role in the demolition exercise, one of the senior Staff who preferred anonymity said that the information got to him, but, that he was not aware of any instruction from superior authorities to commence the demolition of the community, knowing that the case between Kpaduma communities and the FCTA is still in court.
The youth of Kpaduma I, who were arrested by the JTF are Jerry Sarki, Yerima Fajemi, John Danlami, Kefas Tanko, Ishaya Danladi. At the time of filing this report, information about the whereabout of the youth was still unknown.
