The Federal Capital Territory Administration had cautioned local chiefs to desist from selling lands but few natives are still involved in the illegal land transaction thereby exposing the community to demolition. CHIKA OKEKE reports her findings.
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Dutse -Garki is a thick slum settlement located directly opposite the Covenant Gardens Estate, Apo. Apart from the Gbagyi natives, other settlers like Hausa, Yoruba, Tiv and Igbo who are worried about the high cost of rent in Abuja take up residence in the community. Though dirty, with commercial activities like petty trading, hair dressing and beer joints taking centre stage, the community is in the throes of an outbreak of diseases as some of the residences lack toilet facilities. As a result of this, the people defecate in the open and in bushes. Despite the state of the settlement, they have an LEA primary school, primary health centre? (PHC) donated by Rotary Club of Apo, District 9130 but are lacking other amenities like good access road, potable water and drugs for the health centre.
Investigations made by LEADERSHIP SUNDAY revealed that some houses had earlier been marked ‘X’ for demolition while illegal sale of land still booms in the community. While the houses are mainly built with mud bricks, there are makeshift toilets spread within the village.
A Kaduna native who refused to disclose his name was busy negotiating with a lady on how to obtain a land from the Gbagyi when our reporter bumped in on them. He had this to say: “I am from Kaduna State but I have lived here for years. The highest price that you will get a land measuring 25 by 25 from the Gbagyi people is N20,000. If you eventually get the land and you’re relating well with your landlord, whenever they (development control officials)? come for demolition, they (Gbagyi) will claim that the house belongs to them and it will not be affected by the demolition. My own is an example because I relate well with my landlord and to some extent assist them in their domestic work whenever I did not go to work. So, they gave me a free land to build my own house. Even if they eventually demolish the house, you will be compensated because they must have claimed that the house belonged to them.
For instance, they can even reach an agreement with FCDA that it cost them N100,000 to build the house. If they eventually pay them, they can even share the money equal and give half to you because of your relationship with them. In some cases, they might offer you N1m and you will share the money into two. You will give the landlord half of the money and take the remaining half, in that case, nobody loses. But if you want to show them that you are wise, they will come against you. The problem is that some of the houses do not have toilets and the tenants defecate in the bush. But if you’re privileged to buy a land, you can build a toilet inside the house.
He continued, “If you can rent a new house for N150,000 is it not better to buy a land for N20,000 and use the remaining money to build the house after all you build with mud block. You only need to use cement block at the foundation level. But I will advise you to be good to them whenever you get a house because that is the only way that you can be shielded from demolition whenever they come with their bulldozers.
The Chief of Dutse Garki, Alhaji Ishaku Sarki who is a Gbagyi by tribe and could not air his views due to language barrier but his spokesperson, Bala Haggai interpreted the chief’s statements. He stresses: “My parents and grandparents lived here but I have lived here above 80 years. Our problems are numerous; we don’t have potable water, access road and no security men to protect us. We fetch water from the stream but when private developers took over the land, they promised that they will provide borehole to replace the stream water that they damaged during their construction work. Till now, they have not done anything. We buy water from people that sank private boreholes and on days that we do not have enough money, we fetch water from the well. We cannot use the stream water again because the water is dirty and the road that linked to the stream has equally been blocked by the developers.
On the state of insecurity, he says: ‘Three weeks ago, the chief’s car was snatched by unknown persons and has not been recovered. There have also been cases of kidnapping of people from this village because there is no security here.
Shortage of drugs at the PHC is also one of the problems enumerated by the chief. “We have only one health centre here and if you go there, you will not get any drug and the place is empty most times. Moreover, we don’t have specialist doctors that will attend to us. So if anybody is sick, our option is to rush the person to the city for medical treatment.
Are there still other challenges in the community? He adds: “We are all farmers and our greatest problem is that there is no land again to farm because the private developers have taken over our farmlands. Since we do not have farmlands again, we cannot raise money to train our children in schools. Even those that have graduated from school are still unemployed so it’s really a big challenge to us. We have met the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) several times concerning our plight and we are yet to get positive response. Of recent, a farmland was cleared by the private developers and many crops were destroyed, we met them but they told us that they have settled the issue with the FCDA and there is nothing they can do again. That we have power supply today is the effort of the residents. We contributed money to buy a transformer and cables while AMAC only assisted us with another transformer.
On the planned demolition exercise, he said: ‘In 2009, they demolished a section of the village and the victims were not compensated. Even the former AMAC chairman was present and they did not stop the demolition exercise. We took the matter to court and the case is still pending there. They did not inform us that they were coming to demolish our houses and as far as we are concerned, the demolition was illegal because nobody was at home when they visited the village. On whether the demolition was carried out by FCDA, he said: “I don’t know because anything that has to do with the government is legal but the demolition was illegal because it happened when people were not at home. After the exercise, we discovered that a private developer wanted to build on the land. Up till now, we have not heard that they will come and demolish again.
Is the chief actually involved in land racketeering? He notes: “We don’t sell lands again. Our children are growing so some portions of the land were shared to the youth and that is why you will see new buildings in the village. The new buildings are all owned by the Gbagyi people not the non-indigenes.
The Deputy Director, Development Control Department of Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Tukur Bakori told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the agency had warned residents to stop buying lands from local chiefs, saying that a programme is underway to address illegal development of lands. He says: “The unfortunate thing is that people tend to ignore our advice to desist from buying lands from the local chiefs. What the local chiefs always tell whoever comes to them for land is that they are paying royalty to them not that they are selling the lands out. So whenever the administration comes asking them to leave, there is always that understanding between them. The chiefs are becoming more enlightened on the issue of selling these lands. Even the royalty they collect from the illegal developers, they are still collecting it. We had a meeting with the chief of Galadima village and he said that he wants us to come and intervene because they can longer control the illegal developers”.
Meanwhile, the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed during a meeting with the graded chiefs and district heads in FCT recently said that: “It is only the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that has the powers to allocate land and has delegated such responsibility to the FCT Minister.