Residents of a community in a suburb of Abuja were left angry and picking up the pieces on Saturday after the Federal Capital Development Authority demolished their houses.

Officials of the FCDA stormed Apo NEPA in the early hours of the day and the bulldozers they commandeered quickly went to work pulling down buildings that had been deemed illegal.

By the time the bulldozers departed and the exercise, said to have been coordinated by the Chairman of the FCT Task Force on City Sanitation, Ikharo Attah, ended, residents said more than 100 houses had been demolished.

The exercise is said to have taken place months after the buildings were marked for demolition, according to officials who participated in the exercise. The community, whose residents are the original natives of the FCT, was reportedly on land meant for a road interchange and the residents had been asked to leave.

But the residents disagreed with the authorities and condemned the demolition, especially its timing with several of them telling Channels TV that some people were asleep when the crew arrived. They also said they were brutalised and tear-gassed.

Spokesman for the FCT natives, Yunusa Yusuf, insisted that the residents were not given adequate notice before the exercise was carried out.

According to him, the expected procedure is for the Department of Development Control of the FCDA to give a notice about the demolition.

“Nobody can say here that they came and gave a notice. There was no notice,” he told Channels Television. “Even if they say the people (in the community) settled here illegally, what notices did you give to them? How did you tell them that you were going to demolish their houses?”

Yusuf is also unhappy with the way the people were treated during the exercise.

“If you want to demolish houses, will the government now be the one tear-gassing people as if they are terrorists? How will you wake up by 4 am and by 4 am you have already taken over a community just because you want to access their houses?” he asked.

For Yusuf and many others in the community, the development increases the grievances of the natives of the FCT and exposes them to vices.

“This is the same government that has not been able to stop kidnapping, they have not been able to handle security, but, today, they can bring up to 300 security men to surround this community. It is very unfortunate. It is very unfortunate. This is not what we expect,” a visibly upset Yusuf lamented.

Officials said to be involved in the exercise could not be immediately reached for comments. 

As residents went through the rubble of what was once their homes, several of them stopped to lament about what had happened. Their emotions ranged from anger, disappointment, sadness, and despair.

Some of the residents accused the security officials that came with the demolition crew of preventing them from getting their properties out before they pulled down their houses even though most of them were still asleep when they arrived.

“They can’t just come by 4 am just to demolish everywhere and chase us out. We don’t have access to pack our properties, we don’t have any means of surviving. Can the government live without the poor people?” a resident, who said he is a graduate of accounting but works as a dispatch rider because he couldn’t get a better job, lamented.

A woman backed his position, saying, “We were all sleeping in our houses before they brought caterpillars (bulldozers) with troops of mopols (mobile policemen), they started beating people – women, not even men. The women came out (and) were crying, they fired tear gas… They demolished everything.”

According to the woman, some people were still looking for their children at the time Channels TV visited the scene.

Continuing she said, “Without prior notice, you came at 4 am in the morning to demolish. Are we not Nigerians? Is this Nigeria not our country? After the lockdown, they never brought any palliative into this country. We stayed here for months, they locked us down; no work, no businesses. The next thing is to come and demolish our houses.”

 

https://www.channelstv.com/2020/08/16/anger-despair-as-fcda-demolishes-houses-in-abuja-community/

Na wa for Buhari o

Even in this pandemic govt is still bulldozing buildings....God no go shame us

I don't think there's any other democratic country in the world where the government demolishes the property of indigenes without appropriate compensation and relocation strategies.

Did this happen in Ghana?

The only way out is for those affected to go back to their village...

In as much as it is not wromg to discharge your duty as an enforcement officer... At least, do it with a heart of empathy towards those affected.

Nigeria is a punishing state

Another estate loading.... It's the trademark of the elites always looking for ways to surpress and oppress.

Make provisions for them... You kill people's Morales,joy and means of livelihood because of your selfish interest.

FCT is the only state with this problem almost everytime... Quite unfortunate.

This is evil

Even their property was smashed inside

Some people are renters not landlords and don't know anything about any land disputes. Imagine returning from work and seeing this

I was there to buy battery for my car just the day before. What a country.

Craziest of all, this demolition begun like 3am to make sure ppl are just overwhelmed, demoralised and helpless. May God help those affected.

ok

This is really painful. May they find succour

Continuing she said, “Without prior notice, you came at 4 am in the morning to demolish

Without prior notice?
If this is true, which is highly unlikely tho...
Then some lawyers should start preparing for some high pro bono cases.

uboma:

Whatever notice was given, was never enough.
Do you know what it means to ask people to leave their homes and relocate somewhere else?
What form support did the government provide to these Nigerians to aid their relocation?
It is terrible that the government has no regard for its people.

We CONCUR.
We saying the same thing in different writings.
That is why some good lawyers have to come in
hope you read that part of our post also?
This is how it is done in sane Climes.

bigl:
Demolition is a norm in Abuja.
Infact, it has been like that for years, even before Buhari assumed his current position as president.

This is not about Buhari.
Justice must prevail
What is bad is bad please!

oglalasioux:
For those who don't know Abuja, Apo Nepa is not a suburb. The shanties share common area with the posh National Assembly Quatres. That place is an eyesore. I drove past when this demolition was going on and every single house demolished was built with mud; in the middle of the city!

The indigenous people saying they are being maltreated are not saying the truth. I know they've been warned since 2016 to leave that place. Government has, as far as the 1980s, relocated all Abuja indigenous people to places like Kubwa and compensations paid to them.

Defacing our National Capital this way is not good. This is how Lagos was defaced which was one of the reasons the federal capital was moved to Abuja in the first place.

But they say they have not been warned.
We don't know what to believe here.
Anyways, The government is supposed to give them an escape route in all these, to let them know they care.

dawnomike:
In as much as it is not wromg to discharge your duty as an enforcement officer... At least, do it with a heart of empathy towards those affected.

There are some jobs I can never ever be able to do no matter how much I'm paid...this one for example. You also need to see how the 'thugs' engaged by the Abuja environmental are so happy to chase, beat up and cease items from hawkers all in the name of enforcement.....honestly my empathy towards the Less privileged will not allow me do those kinda jobs.

I have nothing to say

Nigeria needs to increase the spending power of the rich and average, so it trickles down faster to the poor...

The only and fastest way is creating a credit card system that works, outright purchase of non-perishable goods should be banned, that way most are not withholding money in large bulk from rotation, it would create a forced retain of foreign exchange because of the stipulated expense spread.

- The Govt get taxable commissions on transactions.
- The credit card companies creates employments on population management.
- Machineries and equipments can be gotten at payment spread which in turn creates a manufacturing economy on both the poor, average and rich.
- The repo teams create employments..
- Creates room for more patronage alongside forced production..
- it would discourage importation, while creating internal production because payment spread disadvantages outright importing..
- Less crime (get rich or die trying).. etc
- The sellers would be insured by the credit card coys on losses and late payments..
- Low income jobs would be better appreciated and no longer dispised which leads to less crime.
- That is the only way we can eradicate corruption and our greedy attitude in Nigeria, where wealth would be evenly spread and corrupt riches would be insignificant and almost invincible, Because a taxi driver can afford same things a banker could afford, the only difference would be spread in payment and credit rating

In as much as I feel sad for these people, the fact is, if their houses had been built accoirding to laid down plans, none of this would have happened.

Here in this country, people come in, build housing anyhow, and bribe government officals to turn a blind eye. The houses then become an eyesore, and a public health hazard., especially for the people living there. Then the government gets serious, and demolishes the houses, and people start crying.

I wish that the government offers people the chance to resettle, or the chance to at least access some funding. Also, to be frank, the government could resettle all these people in many of the empty houses in the FCT (yes, it may drive away investors, but let's be honest...housing should not be a problem in the FCT)...but we the people too should stop breaking the law, so that we don't start crying when the law catches up with us.

Disheartening

This is painful. They have succeeded in rendering people homeless, forced them into prostitution, robbery and kidnapping.
This is the period when they can easily fall victim to fraudsters, out of desperation. Ritual killers may go hunting for the gullible ones, randy boys will start looking for who to bleep and so on.

REMEMBER: "Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that, you do unto me". say the Lord.

I wish them well.

post=92869413:

Without prior notice?
If this is true, which is highly unlikely tho...
Then some lawyers should start preparing for some high pro bono cases.

Whatever notice was given, was never enough.

Do you know what it means to ask people to leave their homes and relocate somewhere else?

What form support did the government provide to these Nigerians to aid their relocation?

It is terrible that the government has no regard for its people.

Nukilia:
The only way out is for those affected to go back to their village...

Did you read where it said the displaced residents are the original natives of the FCT? That place is their village. Abuja is their village!

Nigeria is built on so many layers of injustice, which you may not understand, until it happens to you.

I agree that the affected parties should be relocated and compensated but if you know Apo and Mpape well, you will know that those places shouldn't be in Abuja. That is the home to hoodlums and ganglords of Abuja. Especially Mpape and that town called Maraba which borders Abuja and nasarawa

Rendering people homeless in this hard times

uboma:




Whatever notice was given, was never enough.

Do you know what it means to ask people to leave their homes and relocate somewhere else?

What form support did the government provide to these Nigerians to aid their relocation?

It is terrible that the government has no regard for its people.

We CONCUR.
Hope you didn't intentionally leave out the lawyer part in our post, as some nuisance do here time to time?

Btw,
We gave you your first like!

d timing is wrong (for dis lockdown)


Evil government, imagine coming at 4am to demolish people's properties

Nukilia:
The only way out is for those affected to go back to their village...

These are Gbagyi guys and this is their village. They are the indigenous people of the FCT.

It is very difficult to survive in this country.
That lady that lied down just don't even know where to start from. It is well

Unbelievable
Buhari government has proven to be devilish and inhumane. Nigeria greatest mistake was electing this unreasonable government into power.
Now they are homeless and helpless