Residents of Gishiri village within Katampe District in Abuja have decried the untimely notification of demolition of their residences.
Some affected people lamented that they had just finished paying their rent barely one week ago, while others said the landlords were asking them to pay their rent before their residences were pulled down.
This followed the removal of hundreds of purported illegal developments and extensions around Gishiri village within Katampe District by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Monday, in continuation of its resolve to reclaim encroached plots for the legal owners to take possession.
Officials of the Development Control Department of the FCTA, along with security personnel, stormed the area with two bulldozers and pulled down the structures illegally erected inside people’s plots and right of ways, for residential and commercial purposes, including educational and religious ones.
Also, it was observed that the owners of the legally allocated plots had started taking possession of their land by erecting perimeter fences around their respective plots, as they were encouraged to do so by the FCTA.
Explaining the exercise, the District Monitor of Katampe and Mabushi Districts of the FCT, Town Planner Samson Atureta said it had been ongoing as the extensions were actually on people’s legally allocated plots in the area.
“There are so many illegal developments and the village extensions, that’s why we had to clear them, because these extensions are actually on people’s legally allocated plots.
“So, what we are doing here is to ensure that all those developments that are village extensions are removed, even as we are trying to be careful not to tamper with the houses where indigenes are living in.
“Government might take time, because of procedures, but eventually they will get there. So, today is one of those days that they are here. We can’t help it as these extensions have to go, so as to allow the legal owners take possession of their ideally allocated plots.”
On whether the people were duly notified prior to the exercise, he said: “Yes, as the District Monitor, I have gotten approval to remove Gishiri more than a year ago, but we were just waiting for the logistics. And we finally got greenlight that we were going to do it. I met the Director of Development Control and asked him to permit me to give them another notice. So, we just gave final notice a week before we really started the removal exercise.”
Commenting on the number of structures removed so far, he said: “They are in hundreds, as we can’t really give the actual number now, even though our site officials are working on it, so that we will be able to give proper numbering of houses we have removed. We are counting as we remove them, but I dare say that we have removed hundreds if not a thousand.
“We started about a month or two ago, but because we didn’t have logistics including security backing, so we had to really arrange for them to come. This is the fourth time we are coming here for the exercise.”
One of the affected persons, Mama Blessing, who runs a drinking joint and resides in the area, lamented: “Even though we knew that they would come and do something like this, at least they should have given us enough time to leave and relocate to another place.
“For me, I’m still looking for a place to relocate, but my appeal to the government is that they should help us relocate to another place, as the suffering is too much. We are not rejecting the demolition exercise as we knew that it is government land. But please let them give us time to leave, because it is not easy to suddenly quit especially when we don’t have another place to go.”