Residents of Kpaduma Community in Garki Ward of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) have been rendered homeless following an alleged un-announced demolition exercise that took place in the community last weekend.
A cross-section of the affected residents who spoke with our correspondent expressed disappointment that the demolition took place when most of them were out of the community in search of their daily bread.
This was even as they claimed that they were not given any information on the proposed demolition by relevant FCT authorities.
One of the affected residents, Mr. Musa Jibril, who spoke to LEADERSHIP lamented that he went for his father’s burial ceremony, when he was called to return to the village because his residential building had been demolished with all his property in it.
“They came to demolish our house secretly and ran away like thieves, because people were not around. I and my family were in the village for my father’s burial.? I doubt if they were truly from the government, because if they were, they would have first met with the village chief before going to demolish houses that people are still living in,” he said.?
Another resident whose house was also demolished, Hon. Bala Iya, representing Garki Ward in AMAC also accused authorities of the FCT department of development control of acting unjustly by demolishing houses with informing owners of the houses.
He said it was an act of injustice that had to be looked into by the federal government.
“Although the Director of Development Control in the FCT is coming with the name of the FCT Minister and that of the President, that they sent him, this is not the right way to go about this whole thing. I am not disputing that they should not go about doing what they want to do, but we are human beings and should be treated as such.?
Iyah urged the director of development control to stop the illegal demolition as further demolitions would result in “a great crisis in the FCT and it may start from my village.? They are treating us like animals and we are human beings like them. I am calling on the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed and the National Assembly to quickly act on this injustice against on us, because if they do not intervene, there may be havoc.”
Also reacting, the Secretary of Kpaduma Community, Mr. Simon Baba also condemned the act, saying the way the FCT administration was going about forcefully evicting the aborigines of the FCT may not yield positive results.
“It is unfair the way we are being treated in the FCT.? We did not know when these people came to demolish our houses and now many of our people are homeless.? They are pushing us to the wall.? This is injustice, we are law abiding people, we are in court and the court has not given any verdict on the issue and they are demolishing our houses without the conclusion of the case at the Federal High Court.