Gbagyi: Wailing looms as El-Rufai’s bulldozers roar
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai.
Since Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, made known his government’s resolve to demolish parts of Gbagyi Villa Community, a suburb of Kaduna Metropolis, after developers allegedly encroached into the land belonging to the Kaduna Polytechnic, tension and anxiety has been soaring among residents of the affected area.
The governor’s directive is part of the state government’s policy of reclaiming portions of public schools and hospitals, which were encroached upon by unauthorised persons.In the Gbagyi Villa Community alone, the government intends to recover a massive expanse of land, which currently hosts over 3, 500 residential houses, 40 churches and 20 schools. About 10,000 residents are quartered in the community.
The land tussle between the Gbayi Villa Community residents and the Kaduna Polytechnic (a Federal Government-owned institution), is not new. It dates back to when the late Patrick Yakowa, was in office as governor. He mediated between both parties and this led to an out-of-court settlement in a suit filed by the polytechnic, where it claimed that the community had trespassed into its property.
In the suit no: KDH/407/2010, filed by the Governing Council, Federal Polytechnic, Kaduna, the school was represented by Mr. R. J Dakun, while the community was represented by Hassan Sarki, Luka Barde, Dantata Auata, Joel Bala and Usman Ali, among others.
After the matter was struck out giving way for an out-of-court settlement, the state government under Yakowa, issued a white paper to support the understanding between the two factions.The then Solicitor General/Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Kaduna State, M.I Ibrahim, who also chaired the White Paper Drafting Committee, in a May 12th, 2011 letter to the school’s registrar, stated that in view of the security implication of the tussle, the committee was mandated to articulate the position of government on the issue at stake.
He recalled that the committee after holding consultations with representatives of the polytechnic and the community and also, visited the area and listed the outcome of the consultations as follows:“That during the physical inspection of the area, your representatives and the Gbagyi Community tentatively agreed on a common boundary; that both parties equally expressed willingness to file terms of settlement in the impending case before the court, and that the Sa-Gbagyi, also assured the committee that the community is sufficiently sensitised on the need to ensure peace in the area, which is of great concern to the state government.”
The solicitor general thereafter informed the polytechnic that, “the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Country Planning, will be instructed to expedite action in perfecting your title documents thereafter.”This was the situation that the Namadi Sambo-led government, and that of Ramallan Yero, inherited as residents of the community and the polytechnic co-existed side-by-side.
Things, however, took a different turn with the coming of the El-Rufai administration in 2015. After series of meetings and visits by the governor to the polytechnic and the community, the governor elected to discountenance the existence of the white paper, which clearly reestablished the common boundary, tentatively agreed upon by the community and the school.
As a matter of fact, the governor and the current governing council of the school appear to be of the opinion that no agreement was reached between residents of the community and the institution; hence all the houses in the area must give way for the reclamation of the entire land by the polytechnic.
Stunned by the government’s posture, leaders of the community headed straight to the Kaduna High Court, where they, on March 17, 2016, obtained an order of injunction “restraining the defendants from interfering with the plaintiff’s possession, use and occupation of the properties in issue, and from carrying out or taking further steps to carry out any demolition of the properties in issue as prayed, pending the determination of the motion on notice.”
Surprisingly, two weeks ago the governor and months after the community had obtained the restraining order, El-Rufai, while on a visit to the disputed area said, “The people here have really encroached into the land of the polytechnic and the demolition will go on.”Briefing newsmen after the visit, El-Rufai said, “This is tragedy because on the one hand, Kaduna Polytechnic got the allocation of this land, nearly 40 years ago for the purposes of establishing mining engineering and subsequently a college of environmental studies.”
The governor, who said had the land not been tampered with, “It is not only the polytechnic that would have benefited, but Kaduna State and the country”, added, “Unfortunately, as things stand today, according to the rector, nearly 70 per cent of the land has been encroached upon by illegal squatters.These buildings would have to go. We do not condone illegality in this state, and in Kaduna state you cannot hide behind your religion or tribe to break the law and get away with it. We will go through the process; we will give everybody the process to ensure that he or she has title to the land and permission to build.
“If you don’t have the two, the law will apply and we will take the building down. It is unfortunate that some people have been deceived into thinking that this land is available for sale. It is unfortunate, and in our system, we are going to investigate all those involved in this deception and they will be dealt with,” he stressed.
“Having said that, the law will prevail, and ignorance of the law is not an excuse. It is very unfortunate that many, thousands will lose thousands of millions of investments and savings for building illegally. My advice to people of Kaduna State is that before you start any building, get a Certificate of Occupancy and you have the approval of KASUPDA to build. If you don’t have these two, your building is at risk.”
Asked if he would consider other options other than demolishing the structures, he responded, “It is up to the polytechnic to make that decision. But the point here is that the law has been broken, and as the executive arm of government, our duty is to enforce. I don’t know any other thing, than upholding my mandate and enforcing the law.”
He continued, “Going to court has very little to do with breaking the law. When you break the law, you can’t go to court and withhold actions. This is a criminal conduct and the case in court is a civil matter. They are different. As I said, you cannot steal from the state and go to court and say, ‘stop, don’t prosecute me for stealing.’ They are two separate matters. We shall look into it. The rule of law must apply and we must all obey the law to be safe. This is what everyone should understand.“This is Kaduna State’s land that was allocated to the Federal Government. It is our job to ensure that Kaduna Polytechnic has its full title. Secondly, whether it is a federal land or not, military land or not, if you build in Kaduna State without proper building approval, we will pull it down. No one is exempted,” El-Rufai submitted.
The governor’s plan to bring down the houses resonates well with students, who claim that the alleged illegal occupation of parts of the school land by the alleged squatters has rendered over 10,000 students who were expected to be on the Bye Pass Campus hostels homeless.Addressing a press conference before embarking on a protest at the main campus of the polytechnic in Tudun Wada, President, KADPOLY Student Union Government (SUG), Comrade Usman Kareem, said that several hostel accommodation would have been built by the polytechnic authorities, “If the Gbagyi trespassers did not illegally take over the polytechnic land.”
He called on well-meaning Nigerians to support El-Rufai’s in his ongoing efforts to recover plots of land belonging to the polytechnic and other public institutions.
According to the student union leader: “Gbagyi Villa land trespassers have rendered over 10,000 students who are supposed to be living in hostels homeless. They have been forced to rent houses outside the campus, which is not conducive for learning. The encroachers took over our polytechnic land without sympathy. We believe their children too are here in KADPOLY and others even may have graduated from the polytechnic.
“We want our land back. Many of our students have been involved in road accidents while coming to school from their off campus residences. We commend Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s for this bold initiative and action in recovering KADPOLY land at the Bye Pass Campus.Chairman of the community, Mr. Chris Obodunmu, is imploring the governor to have a rethink about the planned demolition, saying the houses that were erected within the community were done legally.
Currently, while anxiety has overcome residents of the community, who are living with baited breath, and resorting to divine intervention, a traditional ruler of the community, Zeuren Goren of Gbagyi Villa, Chief Luka Barde, was said to have slumped, and died when new filtered in that the houses would be demolished.
Another aged woman, who used the entitlement of her deceased husband to erect a residential building, where she now lives with her children, also collapsed and died on hearing the same news.
Apart from seeking divine intervention, aggrieved residents of the area have resorted to a series of protests and demonstrations to register their disapproval of government’s impending action. A cross section of them and landlords, who spoke to The Guardian, registered their disgust over the impending demolition, and called on the state government to have a rethink.
According to Mr. Tony Ugoshi Owuche, a landlord and an estate surveyor, “I will not say we the residents of Gbagyi villa have encroached on the school’s land because there were issues with the land before the present governor signified his intention to demolish the houses here.”
Aeriel view of Gbagyi community showing some of the houses marked for demolition
He continued, “The school and the community were in court over the issues in question, and the polytechnic requested that the matter should be settled out of the court. Upon the settlement, the polytechnic was asked to fence its plot of land in order to avoid problems. They fully subscribed to the idea, and it was Governor Yakowa that was in office then.“However, a few people went ahead to break parts of the polytechnic fence and started doing layout on their own. So, if people have encroached into somebody’s land, you cannot say that you want to hold your neighbour responsible. You have to look for the people that encroached and not to hold your neighbour responsible,” Owuche cried.
He continued, “I wondered why the governor should now come and group all of us together, even to the point of labeling all of us as criminals, which means criminals voted him into office as governor. I don’t know how we will address him now that he has labeled us that voted for him criminals. A man who encourages crime is also a victim of the same crime. If we have been labeled as criminals, I want him to tell us the name we should call him.
Owuche added, “Before we built our houses, we went to the state property development agency- KAPSUDA, where we collected our land papers and paid through the banks. And I know very well that KAPSUDA is representing the government, but I am surprised that the present governor is saying that he does not have the knowledge of this and wants to demolish about 4,000 houses and push the residents to the streets. Where does he want us to go to? To me, I look at it as sheer wickedness. Assuming we didn’t pay for the plots of land we built on, it would have been a different story. If two of his predecessors saw reason not to demolish the structures, why should El-Rufai be the one to do so?
Mr. Agada Philip, another landlord and a businessman says, “The news of the governor coming to demolish houses in our community is devastating because we cannot imagine it happening. How can one, after toiling for years to acquire a plot of land, developing same only for another person to come around and say he would demolish all that we laboured for. It is simply devastating.
“Right now, we have a case in court, and there is an injunction that is in place restraining the governor from going ahead with the demolition, but the governor says he is above the law and that he would not respect the court order. We wonder where Nigeria is going to if a governor chooses not to respect the law,” he questioned. Philip, who said, “Everybody in this community voted for El-Rufai, but if he is calling us criminals and we are the ones that voted for him, automatically his mandate is a criminal mandate.
“I have been living in this community for the past four years. We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and legislators in the National Assembly to prevail on the governor not to demolish our houses. We know quite well that we are running a federal system, whereby the states have their powers, but where your rights stop, another person’s rights begin from there. So, we are pleading that the Presidency and the National Assembly should take a look at what is happening here in Gbagyi community and quickly intervene. As it is now, the state House of Assembly is in the governor’s pocket, and the members cannot talk.”
While also calling on Nigerians and the international community to prevail on the governor to drop his demolition bid, he explained that the residents and landlords “have approached so many people in the country, including the Sultan of Sokoto and many other emirs on this matter, but the governor says he is no respecter of anybody.
“So, Nigerians should prevail on him to have a rethink. This is because he is trying to cause a big problem in the state, which could eventually lead to a big problem in the country. And I want to advise the All Progressives Congress (APC) to caution him because this man is gradually killing this party in Kaduna State, and if this continues, the party may not survive it in the state. I assure you that he is scared of coming up with a local government elections because he knows that APC will not win a single local government in the state,” a livid Philip submitted.
Another landlord in the area, Mr. Austine Omema, while narrating his ordeal said, “I bought the plot of land, which I built my house for N1.5m. Since we have laws in this country, even if you want to demolish my house, there must be laws governing such demolition.“The governor says that we are thieves. I disagree with that because we are not thieves. My entire property is worth about N20m and now somebody says he wants to demolish the property as a governor. I plead with all Nigerians to come to our aid and beg El-Rufai to spare us otherwise the outcome of the demolition will be serious. He thinks we are fools, but we will show that we are not fools having acquired our plots of land under late Yakowa’s administration.”
He pointed out that, “The encroachment on the polytechnic land was done by other people who came after the former governor had organised an understanding between the community residents and the polytechnic, which led to the school fencing its land … It is left for the polytechnic to pursue those that encroached on its land and deal with them.”
Omema alleged that, “We know why El-Rufai wants to deal with us. When he went to Sa-Gbagyi, after the election he complained that Sa-Gbagyi refused to allow people to vote for him. We are Christians and this is the problem. When he came to us, he swore that Gbagyi villa must be demolished.”
A Gbagyi community leader, Chief Samuel Jandaro, who also spoke, lamented the planned demolition by El-Rufai, saying, “Truly what the governor said to the people of this community is inhuman. Why I am saying this is because even the day he came here, we as peace lovers expected him to come down and address us but he shunned us. We voted him into office and it was for development, and not for destruction.”
Jandaro who faulted the governor’s widely reported comments about the community said, “The comment he made was inhuman coming from him, a leader. If a child has committed any mistake, there are ways of addressing issues, because as a father, he is there for the children. Some people have since died in this community because of that his infamous declaration. Is that development? No.”
He continued: “Democracy says as a people, we should express our grievances. So, we expect him to talk to us. But since he started this problem, he has been talking to the rector, he has not been talking to us. We are not happy about all the comments he has been making against us as a leader. He has also called us all sorts of names. Yes, we have taken the matter to the court of law, and we are drawing the attention of the government again to this issue…”
He concluded, “I am a Gbagyi man, my father’s grave is here, my mother’s grave is here. Whenever we think of what this governor is doing we feel like weeping. It is better for them to kill us… they should kill us first before demolishing our houses. We will then know that our lives have been eliminated by somebody we voted into power. We are not happy. The whole world should hear this.”
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1 Comments
Demolish them mr rufai no mercy for criminals
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