Land encroachment: Lugbe residents write SOS to FG\FCTA
…says lands were properly allocated
The least have not been heard of the various uncovered land grabbing cases inherent in the Federal capital territory due to several irregularities in land allocations.
Dailytimes recalls that the present administration since assumption of office frowned at irregularities being experienced by land allottees and had set up committees to ameliorate such.
Tuesday October, witnessed yet another land dispute between the Lugbe Community Residential Development CRD and the River Park Estate owners.
The Community Residential Development (CRD) site is situated at Airport road, which covers about 474 hectares of lands, was said to have been acquired to members of the public since 1996 with its own layout separately, until recently when a Developer, River Park Estate, allegedly moved in with armed men and police officers to unleash mayhem on the innocent residents.
This ugly incident forced residents to stage a peaceful protest in Abuja, and appealed to the appropriate authorities, especially President Muhammadu Buhari and FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, to come to their aids.
The protesters, who displaced placards with inscriptions such as: “Hon. Minister, Sir. Please, prevail on D.P.O, River Park Estate Police Station, they have no business in land matters; Hon. Minister, Sir. CRD Layout Residents need your urgent intervention to stop administrative injustice; Hon. Minister, Sir.
Our layout is AGIS NO: 0235; please, stop the D.P.O of River Park Police Station from harassing and shooting at residents at will; Hon. Minister, sir.
The Developer of River Park Estate is grabbing land at CRD Layout; Sir, we are law abiding residents of CRD layout, Lugbe and please, tell River Park Police Station to stay clear or we will attack back ooo,” faulted the encroachment by the developer.
Before the SOS letter to Mr. President and the sudden protest, Dailytimes however, discovered that the residents woke up one day to discover that bulldozers have been moved to the community to pull down some structures in the area. It was further gathered that some armed men invaded the community and unleashed havoc on some residents.
One of the victims, Mr. Rufus Olatunji, told journalists that “he bought his land in year 2010 without any premonition of crisis whatsoever, and went to Abuja Geographical Information System (AGIS) to confirm the genuineness of the paper, but to his amazement, the developer wanted to grab it”.
According to him: “my challenge is the man dragging this place with us, and the section of this area which has not been developed has been encroached upon by the developers of the River Park Estate which has been a serious challenge because of the man’s influence in the society.
His boys unleashed mayhem on us during one of our meetings as landlords, even mobile policemen accosted those armed men to the extent that I escaped by the whisker because I was attacked.”
He therefore called on the government to make a demarcation because “we have layout, they should spell it out for us.”
Going down memory lane, however, the spokesperson for the protesters, Mr. Stanley Nwaokike, said: “I have been there for over ten years. I bought the land from AMAC and I was able to get the approval and develop it.
Early 2014, we discovered that River Park started encroaching into our area, bulldozing and falling trees and what actually got our attention was one of us who was building then got his building demolished,
so because of that outrage we all rushed there and we were able to meet the tractor man, policemen and officials accosting them to demolish houses and we told them that this place was not River Park area that they’ve encroached into people’s area.
“We brought our own layout and asked them to bring their layout but they came with layout which we don’t know where it came from and we were able to tell them that their own layout was not registered with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).
They (Police) started beating few of us who were there and started trying to cow us back to our various homes so that they could continue. We have suffered serious from this man since we started.
“Paul Odili has continued to unleash mayhem upon our residents. We mobilized to stop them but he mobilized police officers with Fulani herdsmen and beat us mercilessly and we rushed the victims to the hospital.
With the information available to us, this land was acquired to members of the public since 1996. CRD has its own layout, separate layout, recently a policeman shot a truck moving with block to one of the sites on the order of this man.” He lamented.
Mr. Nwaokike affirmed that the FCDA has never, for once, said the place was not belonged to them neither has it been retrieved from them because it is a relocation area, an area created to relocate people from the road side, insisting that no government official has ever told them that it was not their own.
He said they were shocked by the incessant harassment and molestation.
“We need government intervention, in 2014 he was telling us that the place belonged to Patience Jonathan but when Jonathan’s administration finished, we started hearing that it was Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, and he has continued to intimidate us with Inspector General of Police (IGP) that we cannot do anything.” He bemoaned.
He urged the FCDA who signed the layout into Abuja Master Plan to look into the matter, adding that the layout was standing on its own and has no link into River Park area.
Also speaking, Mrs. Oluwayemisi Florence Moses said there was no problem when her husband started building.
According to her, “we have our paper we confirmed the genuineness of the paper. We went to AGIS and went to AMAC we confirmed that the layout was correct before we started building.
The major challenge is the trouble we are facing from River Park Estate, especially the management headed by Paul Odili.
I had a nasty experience I’ve never experienced in my life when we were home and we just saw some people digging, strange faces around our house and the scenario looked as if there was a war somewhere because it was only my children and I were at home, with six months old baby.
“We peeped through the window and saw some strange men not too well dressed and policemen. They were building fence surrounding our house and one of the officers told our guard that we should move out of the house that they were coming to bulldoze our house, it was like a dream as if I was dreaming.
I had no clue of what was happening and they came truly with the bulldozer, they blocked us, fenced us. Initially no exit, no way to enter to the house and we were there with little baby at risk.
We could not even move the car in or out and they came with armed men and police. In fact, it was a horrible experience for little children to have that nasty experience hearing gun shots from right and left.
“They fired tear gas canister at us when some people were trying to prevent them from doing that. He has been intimidating people with the Nigerian Police who are supposed to be our friends.
“This is a genuine land even it is rightly stated on the Abuja Master Plan, so it is amazing that such could bring trouble.
To sleep sometime inside that house was hell because I was afraid of what would happen in the night having herdsmen around you, having an understanding of what they did in some places. So, I couldn’t sleep very well again because I never experienced it before.” She stated.
Mrs. Moses therefore called for peace, and urged government to come to their rescue in the area, saying government should tell him where he belongs to. “We are not encroaching his land.
He is just using his influence in the society. No other place, this is what we have labored for, for several years. He should take his hands off this community.”
Another protester, Mr. Kwubaakaoto Chukuemeka Ibobo, said the harassment was too much as he goes around intimidating the residents with armed thugs and police, saying he plays God, and believes nobody could match him.
“He uses unguided statement, threatening human beings, denying human being of right to live, God saves us in this place, he ordered police to shoot us but unfortunately for him the bullet hit wrong target.
He has mobile police around him using them to terrorize us in our community. We want government’s intervention. Government should take urgent action.” He pleaded.
Another protester, Igbo Macarthy said: “I’ve been here since 2012. When someone thinks he is God, God will visit that person.
He thought he could intimidate us, we all have a legal titled document issued by the relevant authorities signed by the relevant authorities because in law there is what we called statutory occupancy and customer right of occupancy
“The minister delegates power to probably to Area Council Chairmen and they also delegate power to the relevant personnel signed on their behalf so far we have that document signed by the relevant government appointed officers make us to have genuine land paper, our layout is AGIS NO: 0235, you can go to AGIS and verify it.
“He goes around telling people, innocent subscribers that he has several lands to sell to them, he has no land in this area.
The Nigeria Police have taken side. The D.P.O has collected money, that’s why they were intimidating us. He told us that IGP is his boy.
He came here with police shooting at random, at will as if we are animals it was by God’s grace that no one has died by gun shot. Government should intervene, government should call him to order to stay clear from this land.” He stated.
They all urged the president and minister to use their good offices to restore the land to its rightful owners and prosecute the suspect since community’s efforts to deal with him has not been successful.
When Nigerian Tribune visited Paul Homes Limited, located at Paul Odili Cresent, 448 A, River Park Estate, Airport Road, on Wednesday, for reactions to the allegation, one of the aides of the Manager of River Park Estate,
who attended to our correspondent said: “you know the process, we have our phone numbers on our flayers, call the number, you can book an appointment with us.”
When contacted on phone, the Divisional Police Officer (D.P.O.), River Park Estate Police Station (Obasanjo House), Mr. Chris Ofor, a Superintendent of Police (SP), denied the allegations of harassment and intimidation,
but quickly directed our correspondent to the Police Public Relations Officers (PPRO), FCT Command, Anjuguri Manzah, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP).
.
“Thank God, nobody said I collected money from him but you know I am not supposed to talk to you, so go and see PPRO, FCT Command, he will give you every necessary information.” He added.
When our source visited the FCT Police Command, the PPRO, DSP Manzah said he was not preview to it, and denied the allegation, saying police could not be used to intimate anybody because it is an institution of government to protect citizens’ lives and their property.
“Have they made any formal complaints to the Commissioner of Police (CP) on it? Although, there are many ways to make complaints, I am not preview to it.
Police as an institution of government cannot be used against any individual, against single individual, I don’t know anything about the case.
“We are in the middle to maintain peace. There are procedures for everything, have they made any formal complaints before?” he asked.
