… Appeals to Tinubu, Wike, the Humanitarian Ministry for intervention
…To sue the developer over damages
…Laments the demolition of the chief palace, church, and buildings
… We’re displaced, the developer didn’t give a warning- Youth Secretary
The Executive Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, is presently fuming over the demolition of Karsana 2 community by a supposed developer, identified as Oceanic Properties and Equilibrium Concept.
Addressing journalists and community members on Saturday morning, after an inspection of the damages done by the developer, Maikalangu said he will not take the development lying low as the developer must compensate the community members.
He appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister of the FCT, Barrister Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, for intervention in addressing the situation.
Maikalangu also appealed to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation for the immediate resettlement of the community members, saying the community members have nowhere to sleep.
He said: “As you can see, this is Karsana II in AMAC, FCT. This is an indigenous community that has been here for years, even before the creation of the FCT itself. Before developers located this place, human beings existed here. These people do not come from Cameroon, nor from Egypt. They are from Nigeria. They are indigenous here. They are citizens of Nigeria. Overnight, without any notice from any court, no any compensation, they came down here yesterday, pulled down our houses.
“As you can see, these people are homeless. My question is: where are they going to sleep today? Where does this man or developer want them to sleep today? If something happens now, they say the Gbagyi people are very stubborn. We are loving people, but we cannot tolerate this.
“There are measures and policies in terms of compensating our people. But this man, they call him owner of Oceanic Properties and Equilibrium Concept, on his own, came down here and demolished these houses. Even where people are living, while people were away. Knowing that people are already away for their businesses, he came here yesterday, with nobody at home, and he pulled down our houses.
“We, the indigenous people of FCT, will not take it. We are heading to court, and he must pay for it. If I see this man here, I will forget I am the Chairman of AMAC. Look at my people. They have nowhere to sleep, and they are Nigerians.
“Look at us, the chief is standing there, nowhere to sit, nowhere to sleep. We can’t continue like this in this country. The developer is creating insecurity with the displacement of people. I’m grateful to Mr. President. He said it that day in Gishiri.
“He said, before we came to FCT here, people were living peacefully, and we should love them and we should compensate them very well, which the minister did very well.
“He gave the allocation, and he gave them money! Now, this man, just like that, pulls down our houses because he thinks we are nobody. We are indigenous people, and we are going to defend this. We are going to court, and he has to pay for this damage.”
He added: “Nobody will build a house here. This man, who demolished this place he has a home. Whether he is from the East or North, anywhere, he has a home first. With the Gbagyi people, the name Karsana is important. If you want to relocate people who live here, first, compensate them. If you don’t want them here, give them another alternative.
“Get them somewhere, build houses for them and relocate them. But you destroyed the houses; they have nowhere to sleep, and you are comfortable. It’s unfair. We are all Nigerians. We can’t take this nonsense. That is it. We are taking them to court.
“I’m going to meet my Boss, who is the Honourable Minister of the FCT, to complain to him because, yesterday, I called the Director of Development Control, but his phone was not available. These people who came down here yesterday, we don’t know where they are from
“From the information I got, they are not from Development Control. So we want to know who they are. If they are compromising with some part of the Development Control officials to do this injustice to our people, then we are going to show them that we are indigenous to the FCT.
“I’m submitting this report to the Honourable Minister, and he has to take action immediately. After that, we are going to court ourselves because we cannot continue this way. Many of them don’t have anywhere to sleep. They don’t have anywhere to sleep, as you can see.
“There’s no alternative. As I speak to you now, I’m even speechless. You can see it yourself. Where are they going to sleep today? I don’t know. But we must find our way to reach the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs because these are human beings. These are Nigerians. They have to come and do something immediately. You cannot be killing our people like this. People are alive, but you are killing them. So the federal government has to intervene in this case.”
Also speaking, the Youth Secretary of Karsana community, Dikko Jezhi, said the displacement came without warning as the developer came with armed police men to demolísh houses in the community when they were at work.
He said, “Yesterday, without notice, without any information, we were called. Some of us are working. We were called in to our various workplaces. That our houses have been brought down. We had to rush down here. We saw the caterpillar with some policemen, saying that they were sent from above. So we don’t have any other way to go.
“I was asking my mother yesterday, do you have any other state? My mother said no. Even her grandfather, this was where, her grandfather was born here. So we don’t know where to go. They have demolished our houses. Our properties are down. We don’t know where to go.
So we are calling on the authorities. They have been pushing the indigenous people to the wall. Now we don’t have anything to do. We want to react now. It’s because it’s our father’s land.
“If they are pushing us, we have to react. We can join bad groups, but we don’t want to do that. But now they should provide alternatives to solve this issue. Uncountable houses were destroyed, including churches and the chief palace.”
