23 hours ago
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Bulldozers and men in uniform for more than 20 times have visited a Ruga community located at the Cadastral Zone B03, a sprawling community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, which is said to have been reserved as a buffer zone, along a railway corridor in Wuye District, with the mission of demolishing the community but after every such visit the community springs up again.
The city managers of the FCT have at various times carried out massive demolition of the shanties, but as soon as the bulldozers leave, the recalcitrant occupants will almost immediately re-erect their illegal structures.
Even after the recent demolition, the occupants of this illegal settlement are not relenting, vowing that no one can forcefully remove them from their homes despite the losses that they have suffered as a result of the demolition of the property on land designated by the government as buffer zone. However, it has finally been demolished and the occupants chased out.
Hopefully for good this time, as the government has finally taken over the space, with the hope of restoring it to its originally assigned utility. While the illegal structures were being demolished, one of occupants, who claimed to represent the community, Ibrahim Yusuf, said this is the 22nd time the community has been demolished.
Nonetheless, he vowed that as soon as the bulldozers leave the occupants will immediately re-erect their structures until they are properly resettled. Yusuf noted that the community contributes immensely to the socio-economic development of the territory having been one of the affordable neighbourhoods within the city where artisans and labourers reside.
Show empathy
The audacity of the Ruga community’s occupants was apparently fuelled when a few days after the last demolition exercise, which took place last a fortnight ago, that some members of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), led by Barrister Deji Adeyanju and Social Media Activist VeryDarkMan, organised a protest on behalf of the people.
This protest by the occupants and their sympathisers predictably attracted mixed reactions from different quarters.
Some of these sympathisers said that as Nigerians, the occupants should be allowed to remain as squatters in the community that has been evacuated by the government because of the present prevailing economic situation of the country, noting that the affected home owners and occupants would find it difficult to finance apartments or houses due to the rising cost of living in Nigeria now.
Security experts
But some security experts argued that such benevolence may be catastrophic and on the long run become antithetical to the security of the capital city.
The expert noted that allowing such a large population of undocumented persons to settle within a railway corridor and close to one of the stations, is a huge security threat. Dr Zamani Yusuf, a security analyst, warned that it is a security threat to allow such settlement around a railway station.
He stated that the government had delayed in removing the settlement, noting that there was no justification for allowing the people to live there for this number of years.
According to him, with the level of insecurity in the country and the allegations that bandits and terrorists are migrating into Abuja, such a place might become a hibernating point for such renegades groups to regroup and launch their attacks on unsuspecting people and patrons of the train.
He queried this development, saying: “How can you allow people who are not profiled to settle here in the name of IDPs? ‘‘I don’t believe that all of them here are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The government must be blamed if anything untoward happens, so, removing the settlement and not allowing it is the responsibility of the FCTA.” He also disclosed that the community had gradually outgrown what it initially assumed, a little Fulani settlement with few huts.
Commitment to security
The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, who recently visited the demolished community with heads of security agencies, has decried the audacity of the illegal settlers.
Wike said he would never be deterred by blackmail or intimidation by individuals and groups, noting that the security of the capital city cannot be compromised.
The minister stated that those peddling reports that FCTA officials want to grab the land, were misinformed and also misled. According to him, it is laughable saying that FCTA was demolishing the shanties to pave the way for land grabbing.
He stated that the land being trespassed on belongs to the government which reserves the right to use it for anything. He further stated that the illegal community was located in a buffer zone, very close to a railway corridor and stations, posing a potential danger.
This is as he added: “As you can see, we have had a lot of threats of insecurity in the FCT, and the security agencies are working 24 hours a day to make sure that Abuja is safe, to make sure that citizens and residents of Abuja go about their normal businesses, having sleepless nights to make sure that all of us sleep very comfortably. “And they identified that this area is one of the areas that pose a lot of threats to security.
Our interest is to protect lives and properties, to safeguard Abuja, so that it will be one of the best cities in the world. “We are working in synergy with all the various security agencies. So, we are happy that we have come to see the place ourselves, and we will not allow things like this to continue to happen.”
Reacting to insinuations from certain individuals and groups that the administration’s actions were for ulterior motives, the former Rivers State governor, said: “I have also said that no amount of blackmail, intimidation, or abuse will stop us from doing our jobs”
Ray of hope
However, there may be a ray of light at the end of the tunnel for the settlers after the thunderstorm. Wike, on compassionate grounds, agreed to listen to the cry of the settlers, but on the condition that they will not re-erect the illegal shanties.
This is as he set up a committee to interface with the representatives of the people right there on the site during his visit to assess the situation and speak to the affected settlers who thronged the site in their hundreds appealing to the minister to reconsider the decision of sending them into the unknown.
The minister expressed interest in assisting to ameliorate the plight of the settlers. According to him: “We are human, and we have come here to tell them the proper position of the government and then see how we can also interface with them and see what we can do for them.
“But the truth is that no government worth its salt will fold its hands and allow this place to be occupied by hoodlums. You can imagine the number of persons here whom we cannot identify.
We hear many crimes are being committed outside, and at the end of the day, they come here to stay. “We have told them not to build anything on the place, whether temporary or permanent, until the government has taken the final decision on what to do on this piece of land.”
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