There was an outrage on Wednesday as the Federal Capital Territory Administration stormed the Gishiri community, demolishing several structures erected along water pipelines.
Gishiri community is one of the surviving villages within Katampe District, in the Capital City, where indigenous people live, but have experienced an unusual expansion over the years, due to influx of people into Abuja.
Most of the victims who seemed too heart broken, picking their properties from the debris of the demolished buildings, accused the indigenous people of deceiving them to buy land and build on water pipelines corridor.
Some of the victims who were caught in the demolition web, said they rented apartments there, between the range of N400,000 and N650,000, because the place was very close to their places of work.
According to them, because of the urgency of their shelter needs at the time they paid for the apartments, they didn’t embark on any due diligence investigation to find out if the houses were built on legally acquired land.
Senior Special Assistant to FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement Ikharo Attah, said that apart from the illegal structures sitting on water pipelines, the places was mapped out as a road corridor.
Attah noted that the most disturbing fact about the community, was the fact that criminal elements have taken over every available spaces to foster their criminal activities.
“We came here today to attack the triple illegalities associated with squatter settlements, the criminals’ den inside the cashew plantation in Gishiri, where we recovered cocaine and other hard drugs.
“It has been cleared because we had warned the indigenes about giving out places for the erection of makeshift structures.
“Today the bulldozer hit the area. All the cashew tree have given way for the removal exercise, so that we can save the city; those that built into the flood corridor, and the issue of contravening FCT Urban and Regional planning Act as well as the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) Act, which stipulates what people are expected to do on land. All of these infractions are removed.”
