This demolition is the handiwork of the Gbagyi’s, the government has no hand in this. Although they came with some mobile policemen, we cannot be deceived into believing that they had the permission of the government
What used to be the homes of many residents of Durumi II, a suburb of the FCT now lies in ruins as bulldozers came calling on September 20, 2011. ROSE ADAH, in this piece, writes that the victims, who are now displaced, are calling for justice.
Housing has remained a problem to more than 50 per cent of the Nigeria populace. In every part of the country, you find people who are homeless, taking shelter under bridges, sleeping at motor parks, in tents or zinc/bamboo made houses, or dangerous uncompleted buildings, with no roof, doors or windows, exposing themselves to thieves, rapists and other dangers.
Many Nigerians have been made homeless due to natural disasters such as flood, exorbitant cost of houses and demolitions. Yet, the government appears not to be doing enough to provide adequate and affordable housing for its citizens.?
In Abuja for instance, there are hundreds of empty buildings with the inscription, ‘To Let’ on them while there are countless Nigerians who have no place to lay their heads. These houses cannot be rented by the average Nigerians because they were built for the rich considering the price tags placed on them.
This is the reason the average and poor Nigerians go into the outskirts and villages in Abuja in search of affordable houses. But it is disheartening to find that many times, indigenes of such communities would suddenly ask the non-indigenes to leave their land even after selling some portions of the said land to these non-indigenes who thought that they had found a safe aboard.
This is the case with the Gbagyi indigenes of Durumi II in the FCT. Durumi I was also found to be doing this before it was brought to an end by local chiefs in the area.
Within a space of one week, Durumi II has become unrecognisable with the houses of non-indigenes destroyed, rendering hundreds of people homeless. At least one life and propertt running into millions were said to have been lost due to the injustice caused to the people by the Gbagyi chief and his people, demolishing their (non-indigenes) buildings with no proper warning or notice, all in the name of taking back their land.
LEADERSHIP findings revealed that despite the fact that non-indigenes bought portions of land from this community legally before erecting their buildings, the buildings were demolished with no explanation or warning, not to talk of compensation.
It was also discovered that the government has no hand in this act that the injustice is the handiwork of the indigenes, who without prior warning, brought bulldozers to bring down buildings with no consideration for the lives and property of these people.
Houses demolished during the exercise were those owned by non-indigenes. Even though a few schools, churches and some homes were spared, their fate hangs in the balance as the people have warned that the bulldozers would return at anytime, without notice, to continue what was started.
Most of those displaced as a result of the demolition, now take refuge in schools, churches and shacks, pending when they can afford decent accommodation outside the community or probably, return to their villages.
Although some of the displaced refused to comment on the issue for fear of the unknown, a few of them were able to express their feelings; referring to the act as unjust, wicked and heartless.
They lamented that most of them were unable to take out their belongings before the demolition because they were not properly informed and many were out to their different places of work and businesses, while others travelled out of Abuja, only to return to their homes and property in ruins.
A student, who gave his name as David Ali, told LEADERSHIP that his uncle’s house was also affected. he said the government had nothing to do with the demolition and alleged that the indigenous people were solely responsible for the wicked act.
“This demolition is the handiwork of the Gbagyi’s, the government has no hand in this. Although they came with some mobile policemen, we cannot be deceived into believing that they had the permission of the government. The policemen were seizing handsets and cameras used by onlookers to capture the unjust act and the cameras were only returned to the owners after some payments were made to the policemen.
“No government wakes up to render people homeless for no just cause. Government demolishes in order to develop and they usually give ultimatums of several months to enable the affected persons find alternative accommodation before carrying out the act.”
Pointing at some ruins, he said “A lady was almost killed in that house when she was trying to take out some of her valuables. Some blocks fell on her in the process but thank God, her life was saved by onlookers. The tractors came in the day so, people who left their houses earlier came back to meet their houses and property in ruins.
Mr. Moses Ali, a policeman who was a landlord before his house was demolished told LEADERSHIP that information about the demolition exercise was not properly passed.
“They marked houses for demolition on September 19, 2011 and came with bulldozers the following day, September 20, 2011. Before my eyes, the house I built with my sweat was brought down; some of my valuables are still missing. People were using shovels to dig up their belongings since they were not allowed to remove them before the demolition,” he lamented.
Ali also explained that, although the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) denied having a hand in the demolition, they were yet to get a response from them or the government over the matter.
“The indigenes claim they have the permission of the FCDA but we went to their (FCDA) office and they denied having any knowledge of the act. We were sold this land to build on, we are not indebted to them, and in fact we have been very cooperative, donating thousands of naira for a transformer that was never purchased. Yet our houses were demolished with no explanation,” he added.
On his part, Mr. Joseph Johnson said the government had failed its citizens.
Miss Stella Ejeh, another displaced person spoke elaborately on her sad experiences. She said “We were not given ample opportunity to seek for accommodation or to remove our belongings before our houses were destroyed. I am squatting with my cousin until I can raise money to go back to my village. Some persons travelled out of town, some were at their places of work when they brought the bulldozers to demolish houses with property inside. A boy who was sleeping in a house was fortunate to be rescued from the mouth of the bulldozer, but another baby in a different building was not lucky enough as she was killed in the process.”
She also alleged that some of the indigenes collected huge amount of money from the non-indigenes with the promise of protecting their houses, but on the day the bulldozers were brought, those who collected the bribes were nowhere to be found.
Going further into the market, LEADERSHIP discovered that the traders were not left out as shops and wares were destroyed with no prior warning.
A petty trader who gave his name as Mohammed Bello said he was not aware of the demolition until the day they came into the market, “They came without warning, demolished our shops and destroyed our wares with no apology.”
Efforts to get the chief of Durumi react to the allegations levelled against him proved abortive as a source within the palace, who refused to mention his name said the chief was not interested in granting interview to any journalist on the matter.
But the questions on the lips of the victims is if a group of persons can wake up one day and destroy the abodes of others, displace them from an area they have paid and laboured for, without the necessary recourse to the law? Would the perpetrators of such act be left to go scot free with no compensation or explanation to the displaced as to why this should be?
The government has a long way to go in tackling issues like this, especially the problem of inadequate and unaffordable accommodation for the common man, who earns a meagre salary with which he would feed his family and pay house rent among other basic needs.
The tears of the displaced in Durumi must not go unnoticed the government must come to their aid and match this injustice with justice.
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