Residents of the Committee on Resettlement and Development Layout otherwise known as CRD, Lugbe, situated along Airport Road, Abuja, have petitioned President Bola Tinubu over planned demolition of the property.
To this end, they called on the President and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, over a threat by the Federal Capital Territory Administration to demolish their structures and re-allocate their lands.
TheHintsNews reports that residents of the area had on Wednesday, February 7, 2024 saw demolition notices pasted on the walls of their buildings by persons who claimed to be officials of the Development Control Department when some of them returned home from work to find
They explained that the demolition notices informed owners of the affected houses that their properties have been marked for demolition within 21 days to make way for a Central Market in the area.
“Demolition Notice. Plot No. Central Market (3785). District: Lugbe North. Cadastral Zone: E25. The Authority observed with dismay that the development or structure on the plot is defective and constitutes danger or nuisance to the public/adjoining plot.
“Take notice that you are given 21 days to comply by pulling down the structure or have the illegal development demolished in accordance with Section 61 of the Nigeria Urban and Regional Planning Act 1992,’’ the notice reads.
The property owners, however, expressed surprise that the Layout, which has been in existence since 1996 with fully developed properties, would suddenly be converted into a general market without the knowledge of residents and land owners.
They blamed the planned demolition of their property on the unholy connanivance of some FCDA officials through the Department Development Control with a private estate developer to harass, intimidate and illegally dispossess them of their property.
Against this background, they called on Tinubu and Wike to immediately wade into the simmering situation to prevent an avoidable multi-dimensional crisis.
The Chairman of the CRD Residents and Landlords Association, Abdulwasiu Mustapha, said in the petition, the area in contention, CRD Lugbe 1 Layout is identified in the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) as Plot No. 0235, where land titles owners have fully developed and occupied since 1996.
They stated: “Since 2014, an individual, through his firm, has been waging a series of illegal wars of conquest to achieve territorial expansion of his allocation into CRD land area.
“CRD layout, covering a land area of about 474 hectares, was created in 1996 by the FCDA to relocate and resettle persons affected by the dualisation and expansion of the Airport Road within the Lugbe 1 area.
They alleged that officials of the Development Control Department of the FCDA working in cohort with a private developer have made their lives a living hell over the last couple of months.
Mustapha said: “Available information from the FCDA shows that a developer and his private estate development firms, who were allocated part of the CRD area in 2007 by the then El-Rufai administration in the FCT, have so far acquired almost half of the area.
“Our lands were given to the developer without due process of law or revocation of existing titles in clear violation of the rights of the property owners. Since then, our lives have been a living hell.
“This man has deployed all known means to forcefully sack us from our lands. He has deployed security agencies to constantly, harass, intimidate, threaten, arrest, and detain our people without any lawful excuse.
“He has demolished our homes, barricaded our roads, dug trenches around our houses, and fenced our community without outlets to the rest of the world.
“We have written to virtually all public institutions for intervention without success. We have sought reprieve from the courts, but he has ignored every restraining court orders without any consequence.”