Stop inscribing ‘Gbagyi house’ on structures marked for demolition, FCTA warns
The FCT Administration (FCTA) yesterday resumed demolition of illegal houses in Kabusa, a community in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), warning owners of such structures to stop camouflaging them as indigenous houses by inscribing “Gbagyi house” on them.
Speaking to newsmen during the demolition exercise, the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring Inspection and Enforcement, Comrade Ikharo Attah, stated that while the administration would respect the rights of the original inhabitants to resettlement and compensation, it would not hesitate to pull down all illegal houses belonging to non-indigenes.
Attah, while warning mischief makers inscribing “Gbagyi house” on structures marked for demolition to desist from that, also warned those who collected money from non- indigenes to provide them cover to stop such act.
He said, “We are not touching houses of the indigenous people; we are clear on that. They have right to resettlement and compensation, but those who are non-indigenes who have become so mischievous to go and write all over their houses, ‘Gbagyi house’, we know the indigenous houses, we have men who are undercover agents and have been living there and have guided it. So, those who are non-indigenes and are writing indigenes’ house on their building, we will remove all of them.
“The original indigenes are here. The chiefs are here, the SSA to the Minister on Youths and Community Relations is here. They know their houses and we also know the indigenous houses as well. Those who collected money from nonindigenes to give them cover will not stand.”
On why the team was back in Kabusa, the minister’s aide said the team would sustain the operation until all batchers, shanties and illegal structures fueling insecurity in the neighbourhood were removed.
On his part, the District Head of Kabusa, Chief Zawu Zufuzhizow John, appealed to the FCTA to suspend the demolition till the end of the rainy season.
He said, “Look at how people are running about to save their property, and this is rainy season. We are pleading with the minister to stop this demolition so that we can have the necessary meetings and understand ourselves before any other thing will take place.”