Cephas Lenge, a security guard with a private security firm, was at work in Gwarimpa last Thursday when his phone rang. He checked the device and almost smiled when he saw that it was a call from his friend. He was about to start cracking jokes when the caller dropped a bomb shell: the infamous demolition team from the Federal Capital City Department of Development Control was pulling down his apartment at Lungu Village!
Lenge abandoned his duty post and ran to the roadside to board a tricycle, but none was forthcoming. With no time to waste, he trotted to his house, which was a few kilometres away, and found that the building had been pulled down. His attempt to move closer to the scene was cut short by soldiers who, he said, prevented him from salvaging his property and documents from the debris.
But while Lenge and a few others whose homes were demolished took the situation with equanimity, others did not take things lying low as they took to the streets and the road in protest. Their anger and frustration boiled over when reports filtered in that a woman, whose child was allegedly killed by falling concrete, had stabbed herself to death.
With the fury of a hurricane, the mob swept to the Kubwa Expressway like a tidal wave and set bonfires on the road, causing a traffic gridlock for motorists and other road users.
Chanting anti-government songs, the youths blocked both sides of the expressway. For almost six hours, traffic on the road was at a standstill as the angry youths of Lungu practically shut down the highway and prevented road users from plying the expressway. Movement was halted, forcing many commuters to resort to trekking. The protesting youths defied entreaties from policemen who moved in to pacify them and bring the situation under control.
Mike, who works with a media outfit, said he spent over three hours in the traffic gridlock. A commuter, Kemi Kindness, said she had to trek many kilometres to get to her destination, adding, “I really suffered that day.”
Policemen from the Gwarimpa Divisional Police Station and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps had a hectic time controlling the traffic during the incident which happened at the peak period when workers were returning home.
There were different versions of what triggered the protest, with an unconfirmed report saying it was caused by the death of the woman and her child who were killed by falling debris from one of the structures that was demolished by the Development Control officials. Another version stated that the woman’s child was killed by a falling concrete and the that aggrieved mother allegedly committed suicide by stabbing herself with a knife.
Lenge, who along with his wife and a baby, is currently squatting in an uncompleted building around his demolished house, explained that he lost his television, furniture, clothes and documents to the demolition.
“Even the owner of the uncompleted building where I am squatting has asked me to leave; he said he doesn’t want squatters in his building,” he said, disconsolate.
Asked whether he participated in the riot, the security guard said he didn’t, adding that that was not his concern at the time as he was worried about his destroyed belongings and his wife.
“I didn’t take part in the protest because I was worried about my situation. My wife was crying with the baby on her back and we had no place to stay and all our belongings had been destroyed,” he narrated.
Another victim of the demolition, Elechias Dachi, a mason, also complained that the armed soldiers that were with the demolition team did not allow him to pack his belongings during the exercise.
Asked if a woman really died, Dachi said he could not say, stressing that he heard the report like everyone else. The mason described the demolition as illegal, saying residents were not informed before the FCDA officials swooped on the hapless community.
He said, “The case is still in court and it has yet to be decided, but the Development Control department brought armed soldiers and caterpillars and pulled down our building. It is the height of illegality.”
Emmanuel Nanpang, whose apartment did not escape the iron fang of the FCT caterpillar, was articularly irate with the soldiers for allegedly maltreating Lungu residents and flogging them.
He noted that the soldiers should be deployed in Borno State to confront the rampaging Boko Haram terrorists.
He said, “Nobody was allowed to take anything from their homes; the soldiers were flogging people and threatening them. But they have Boko Haram in Maiduguri, they should go and confront them there.”
Curiously, none of the residents could identify the woman who allegedly stabbed herself after her son was said to have been killed by falling debris. However, the devastation caused by the demolition could be seen in the crushed items of furniture, torn clothes, mangled shoes, yards of debris, and of course, depressed residents bemoaning their fate.
Chief of Lungu community, Sanya Zakka, complained that the suit he filed against the FCT Administration against the demolition had yet to be decided by the court. He explained that he headed to court when the government marked the buildings for demolition, adding that the court had reserved ruling on the matter at the last adjourned date, April 14, 2014.
He said, “I was shocked when I learnt that the FCT was demolishing buildings in my community and I called my lawyer who told me that the ruling had not been delivered. My lawyer called the court registrar who informed him that the judgment had been delivered in his absence. The registrar claimed that he called my lawyer on the phone, but he didn’t respond, and so the judge delivered the judgment which was against us.
“I was shocked by this. I have never seen where a court would deliver judgment in the absence of a plaintiff or complainant in a case. Anyway, our lawyer has filed an appeal against the judgment and a date will soon be fixed for the hearing.”
Zakka, who bemoaned the refugee status of the people affected by the demolition, said it was unfair of the government to deprive Abuja indigenes, the Gwaris, of their farmland and now, their homes. “It is painful that we have now become refugees in our own land; they have taken our land, they have taken our farm and now they have taken our homes,” he lamented.
But the Public Relations Officer, Department of Development Control, Kalu Enetu, said the suit filed by the occupiers of the land was thrown out by the court; hence, the demolition of the illegal structures on the land which had been allocated to an estate developer.
Enetu said the briefing given to him by the demolition team did not include the death of anyone, adding that the team said they left the scene around 3pm after concluding their task.
He explained that the development control demolished an encroachment on Plot 64,Kafe District at Lungu Village, Gwarimpa, which was meant for an estate development.
According to him, the illegal structures on the land had been marked for demolition since April 4,2014, after a series of meetings with the village chief failed to resolve the issue.
Enetu said, “The briefing given to me by the demolition team did not include the death of anyone, so I can’t comment on that. What happened was that squatter settlers encroached on Plot 64, Kafe District at Lungu village, a plot that was meant for estate development.
“It was marked for demolition since April 3, but after a series of meetings with the village chief, they went to court to stop the demolition. The court finally threw out the case. In all, 54 illegal structures were removed, as well as 17 shanties, five shops and one church.”
The police however said they could not confirm whether anyone died during the demolition. The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Altine Daniel, said she had yet to be briefed by the Gwarimpa divisional police officer on the incident.
She said, “I cannot say whether somebody died during the demolition exercise or not because I don’t have such a report on my table.”
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