How FCDA rendered Nigerian citizens homeless for being non-indigenes in their own country

The Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, recently rolled its tanks into Angwa Gwari in the Abuja Municipal Council Area, AMAC, Abuja, and pulled down people’s houses, business places, and worship centres.

What is most troubling about this is that while most of the residents were compensated for the demolition of their property, some others were left in the cold because they were considered non-indigenes in their own fatherland.

However, Nigerians were meant to understand that the civil war of 1967-1970 was fought just to keep Nigeria united. In fact, the then leader, General Yakubu Gowon, told the country that his name meant ‘Go on with one Nigeria’.

It is evidently clear that Nigeria is yet to translate that purported unity for which millions of souls were lost to reality. Or how does one feel when he suddenly loses all of life’s achievements in one fell swoop to the angry caterpillars of an unjust system that sees a section of the country as indigenes and others as non-indigenes to be subjected to unfair treatment.

 

The demolition was done to make way for road construction in Angwa Gwari and Angwa Diko Karshi under the AMAC. However, of what real use is the road if it is a ruse to hurt and render those it is supposed to serve homeless?

Nothing could be more heartbreaking than watching helplessly the demolition of the house you spent millions saved over years to build.  It is a sad irony that the country that failed to provide you with accommodation would turn up to brutally take from you the one you sacrificed sweat and blood to build for yourself under the most agonising, unfair, and unjust circumstances.

Some of the affected people used their retirement benefits to build their houses while some widows lost the only legacy their late husbands left for their household.

To make matters worse, the indigenes were compensated after they had sold the lands to the non-indigenes and collected their money. For them, it is double gain while for the non-indigenes; it is double pain, as they did not only lose the money they spent on buying the lands but also their houses and means of livelihood.

So, while the indigenes are smiling to the banks, buying houses in choice places with their compensation, the non-indigenes are weeping to count their losses with dimming hope for justice.

Will justice ever come for these hapless Nigerians?

The journey to this painful ordeal dates back to 2014 when the chief of the town reportedly asked each non-indigene to pick an indigene to represent them as owners of their houses.

As events are unfolding, it seems this was a setup for a scam. It appears that the indigenes allegedly led by the Sarkin Karshi, had, in connivance with some FCDA personnel, unconscionably taken advantage of the distraught non-indigenes with whom they had lived peacefully for decades.

Nevertheless, the non-indigenes fell for the trick and after capturing their houses, the chief’s cabinet invited them to a meeting where they allegedly demanded that the non-indigenes should remit 40% of whatever they were paid to the cabinet and another 10% to the local who represented them, making it 50-50.

However, the non-indigenes insisted on a sharing ratio of 30:70; 10% to the locals while 20% to the palace but they refused. This was evidenced in an audio recording of the meeting.

Consequently, on December 23, 2019, all the affected indigenes and a few non-indigenes were called to the palace and paid handsomely. The total houses affected were about 71 but about 33 people were paid. It appears that the non-indigenes’ refusal of the 50-50 proposal of the palace cost them gravely and is responsible for their being shortchanged.

 

Thereafter, a meeting was convened between the non-indigenes, who were not paid, and the palace alongside two staff of FCDA. After much deliberation, the chief came up with excuses, claiming that some non-indigenes went to FCDA and indicated that they were the real owners of their houses and asked that their monies should be paid directly to them, making FCDA remove their names from the list of beneficiaries.

However, the chief assured all those that were not paid that he would mandate the FCDA to make the road one lane, so that the houses of those not paid would not be touched but promised to give a plot of land each to those whose houses could not be avoided, as a compensation.

Despite the promise, however, on December 18, 2021, palace guards with some police officers reportedly went around the affected area, placing demolition notices and giving everybody only five days.

About eight people among the non-indigenes, who hailed from Nasarawa State and other surrounding states that speak the same tongue as the senator, representing the FCT, met with him. He intervened on their behalf and they were paid. Among the non-indigenes that were paid alongside the indigenes on December 23, 2019, are Abubakar Haruna from Benue State, and Sani from Gombe State.

Sadly, between April 7 and 11, bulldozers were brought in with a team of armed personnel and pulled down all the houses, leaving many homeless.

Strangely, the FCDA told the non-indigenes who were not paid that they paid every affected person irrespective of their tribes, yet the chief keeps denying it.

Attempts to speak with Sarkin Karshi were initially unsuccessful, as he did not pick up his calls. However, his deputy, Hakemi Karshi, said he did not know anything about the compensation and referred him to the FCDA instead.

Our correspondent also called the number he was given as belonging to the FCT PRO, Hajia Dr. Jumai, but she said she was neither the PRO nor Jumai, wondering how we got her num.

When our correspondent eventually spoke with Sarkin Karshi, he initially denied knowledge of the demolition, but later resorted to threatening our correspondent, warning him to keep off the matter, otherwise he would run into trouble.

The question is: If the FCDA paid the compensation due to the so-called non-indigenes, who did they pay the compensation to? Could the natives have defrauded the victims by deceiving them into recruiting indigenes as rightful owners of their lands and then going behind them to collect the compensation? And why would Nigerians undergo such harrowing and humiliating experiences in order to protect the property they bought with their hard-earned money because they are strangers on their own land?

The victims accuse Sarkin Karshi of allegedly defrauding them of their entitlements after failing to milk them of 50 percent of their rightful dues. They insist and rightly so that the FCDA authorities must speak up and clear this mess, including the role played by some of its staff.