Residents of Karu
Community, one of the settlements in the outskirts of the federal
capital, Abuja over the weekend kicked against attempts by the Federal
Capital Territory Administration to take over a parcel of land
originally designed as a recreation ground for the settlement.
The protesters, who
are mainly youth carried placards decrying the FCDA directive, they
almost had an confrontation with the police from Karu Division led by
the DPO, who insisted that the government directive on the land cannot
be challenged by them.
The protest was led
by former Chairman of Abuja Council of Nigerian Union of Journalists,
Lanre Ogundipe who said moves by the FCTA to build a women development
centre on the land, which was originally designed to be a recreational
zone in the FCT masterplan, is an unwelcome development. One of the
residents, who simply identified himself as Tony, told NEXT that the
land used to be a refuse dump before it was cleared by the youth of the
settlement and later turned into a recreation centre for community use.
Buttressing Tony’s
assertion, Mr Ogundipe said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) had earlier moved to build its training institute on the land
some years back, but was resisted by the community. “The government had
to allot EFCC a parcel of land in another location close to the disputed
land,” he said.
Provide alternative
The former NUJ boss
advised the FCTA to provide an alternative space for the community if it
must take over the land, adding that series of meetings held by the
community and government officials did not yield any results, an
indication of the insincerity of the FCT administration about providing
an alternative.
Another resident, Ndagi Mohammed spoke in the same vein, “Government
should show its sincerity by providing another parcel of land for the
community,” he said. “The failure of the FCTA to do this means it is not
serious about its pledge, the land in contention was once bushy and
used as a refuse dump, which was cleared by the youth when one of us
suffered a serious injury on it ,” a youth leader, Daniel Eigboboh said.
“How can the government say it wants to take over the land without
providing another alternative? This space was designed as a green zone
in the Abuja master plan, and building on it amounts to a distortion of
the master plan.”
