By Adewale Demilade
The Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA has warned residents against buying lands from local chiefs and natives, who he said do not have any right to allocate or sell land to anyone.
It also cautioned residents against using the cover of the Yuletide to erect illegal structures, saying its officials are not on holiday and would sustain the ongoing demolition of such structures during and after the festivities.
Senior Special Assistant SSA on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the FCT minister, Comrade Attah Ikharo disclosed this while speaking with journalists at the sites of the removal of illegal structures at Guzape I and Guzape II, in Abuja.
Ikharo added that it is only the Minister of FCT, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello that has the constitutional powers to allocate land to anyone in Abuja.
He said; "We came here today to actually continue from where we stopped because some persons in FCDA informed us that we haven't finished the job.
"The one at Kobi village in Guzape II, all the illegal houses and structures on the road corridors were all removed today in order to give way to the infrastructural work that is ongoing in that area.
"The main Guzape I village here, we are trying to remove the illegal structures, shanties and all encroachments here by non-indigenes were all removed.
"We have warned the non-indigenes to stop buying land from the locals. The locals are up, you can see the village up there, they are in their respective homes watching what is going on.
"We had earlier marked them for removal and we are now here to remove them. When we came here, they thought the locals will come and tell us what to remove and what not to remove. The locals are in their houses and those who bought land from them are crying and the Minister has asked us to clear here to pave way for the infrastructural work that is ongoing in the area.
"We will be working deep into the Christmas and probably during Christmas and after the Christmas".
One of those affected who gave his name as Mr Amos said he bought the land about two years ago for N120, 000 from the indigenes and moved into his property in 2021.
"I built here, Kobi Sarki. I built about two years ago. I bought 25 by 30, at N120,000. Nobody told me that the land is illegal. I bought the land from the indigenes and they gave me a paper from Madaki House and it was the Emir that signed the paper they gave to me. I even paid for the signing of the paper, I paid N3,000.
"I started building in 2020 and I parked in 2021, and I spent about N1 million to build the house and everything is gone now".
He lamented that, "Nobody informed us that the land is illegal. If they had told me I wouldn't have bought the land or built here. The locals are supposed to tell us that they will still demolish the buildings".
On his plans, he said he might be moving back to the village.
Mr Yohana who was also affected, lamented the fact that nobody told them that their houses would be demolished some day.
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