From Fred Itua and Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Musa Garba was doing well as a farmer in Gujba, Yobe State, until Boko Haram insurgents swooped on his village and hoisted their blood-stained flags on their ancestral lands.
Helpless and frustrated, he contacted his relative who had earlier fled Adamawa State and settled in Bassa village, Airport Road, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
The man agreed to accommodate Garba, his wife and four children in his makeshift house built with more planks than blocks. Garba had barely settled when officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCTA), marked the area for demolition.
While many were still engrossed in the thought that the FCTA was bluffing, bulldozers rolled into the area, demolished all the buildings into rumbles, rendering Garba and many others instantly destitute with no roof over their heads and any reasonable means of livelihood. The harrowing episode that confronted these helpless Abuja residents, has been the heavy cross many displaced persons who fled troubled areas especially in the North East to settle in Abuja, albeit illegally.
There is no denying the fact that mass demolition has become a yearly routine in Abuja. From Mpape, to Dei-Dei, Gwagwa, Lugbe, villages along the Airport Road down to Giri among other slums in and around the city, FCTA moving bulldozers to inflict pains, agonies and sorrows on residents has become an annual ritual.
In commando fashion, thousands of shops, residential buildings, shanties and kiosks were destroyed, leaving a large number of people homeless and countless without sources of livelihood.
These bulldozers are accompanied by a armed security personnel who often prevent evictees from retrieving their possessions from their homes and business places. They unleash teargas, molestation and other forms of violence to chase them away.
While the victims are still nursing the pains of their loses, scavengers, popularly known as “Baban Bola,” hovering around the demolition sites like adventurous vultures, are feasting on the belongings of the evictees. They make it impossible for the traumatised victims to salvage what remains of their valuables.
In defence of their actions, the FCTA will give thousands and one reasons, insisting that the exercises are carried out as part of efforts to restore the FCT urban master plan. They always claim removing the illegal structures, which according to them, are defacing and posing security threats, is a task that must be accomplished.
They insisted that adequate notices were given to residents beforehand, a development many of the evictees denied, saying a foreknowledge would have enabled them to mobilise funds to facilitate their relocation.
Mrs Victoria Abraham is a resident of Bassa Jiwa, by the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport. A victim of one of the 350 houses and shops demolished recently, she lamented: “They came and marked some houses with a six-month notice, saying they wanted to expand and tar our road. They didn’t show up when the six months elapsed. The indigenes told us that they had some discussions with them and there won’t be any demolition.
“Unfortunately, about a year later, they showed up and gave us a 24-hour notice. This time they didn’t default. They came in with their bulldozers after 24 hours and pulled down houses.”
Another evictee in the same area, Gabriel Igwe, recalled: “The most painful part of it is that they began to pull down structures that were never initially marked. I was busy helping my friend evacuate his wares when my wife called me that the bulldozer was bringing down our shop.
“I immediately ran back in shock because my shop was not part of those marked. Before I could say ‘jack’ the bulldozer shrunk my container shop to irreconcilable shape.
“I didn’t remove a pin from the shop. Eventually I sold the container to scavengers as scrap for the sum of 5,000. A container I bought for close to 400,000.
“Now I don’t even know where to start. I have a wife and four kids, yet I have lost my source of income. Life has become unbearable since then.”
An Abuja human rights activist and businessman, Adekunle Bankole, said: “Mass demolition without any form of resettlement plan for those evicted gives room for a situation, where hundreds are left without shelter, access to water and sanitation facilities, healthcare centres, schools, as well as losing sources of employment.
“A lot of people are taking shelter in horrible places and engaging in unimaginable things to survive. So many people including children and pregnant women are now living under the bridges located at the city centres. These contribute to all forms of social vices and could further escalate insecurity in the affected communities.”
Executive Director, Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC), Felix Morka, argued that evictions were not the solution and advised government to instead upgrade the settlements in consultation with those affected:
“Evictions not only make people homeless and destitute, but also vulnerable to violence, theft and rape. People have lost their access to water and sanitation facilities, healthcare centres and schools.
They are being forced to move further from sources of employment.”
Ikharo Attah, Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of FCT, Muhammad Bello, however, explained the demolition of Apo-Dustse Market: “We have gotten intensive complaints of security challenges in the district occasioned by the very ever busy Apo-Dutse Market. That has been very worrisome here.
“The minister, FCT Police Commander, Sunday Babaji and several others have raised concern over what is going on here. There are good people here and there are very bad and wrong people here. It is an illegal market. In fact, the largest not only in Abuja, but the whole of the central region.
“The minister gave the directive that we should clear the entire market so that those who are plot owners will be able to take over their lands and start development of mass housing. The market is illegal and very dangerous. The FCTA has marched its words with action.
“Everyone who lives around here is scared. Before now, we have gotten complaints through the ministers, royal fathers and others that what is happening here is very dangerous. It is inimical to the wellbeing of FCT.
“What is happening here is a dispersal of persons who have fertile breeding ground for crime. Many of them are going to do well in life in any other trade. Many are going to move whatever they are moving out of here to new site where they can sell as scraps there.
“Pan taker is not a bad thing and has never been a bad thing. But what some bad people do around pan taker market is what is painting the pan taker in a very bad light here. Having dislodged them here many will seek a better ground to do their businesses.
“We cannot estimate how many shanties have been removed. In the final analysis, we are expecting to see over 4,000 shops, shanties and others removed.”