Mohammed Haruna Yusuf and Hamisu Kabir Matazu
27 June 2008
Squatters at Toge community yesterday accused Gbagi indigenes of betraying their trust by pointing out their homes for officials of the Development Control Department of the FCT Administration to demolish.
They said such betrayal led to the death of a squatter and the destruction of their property that ran into hundreds of thousands of naira.
One of the squatters, Malam Tahir Katsina accused the Gbagi people of being responsible for the death of Ismail, who was killed during last Sunday's demolition at Toge.
He said the squatters were the first to settle in the community before the Gbagi people arrived from neighbouring areas and were received by the squatters.
"We were surprised that the Gbagi people turned out to be the ones pointing our homes out for the bulldozers to demolish," he added.
Jibril, another settler lamented that most squatters have been rendered homeless, adding that Abuja is a no man's land and no one can claim land ownership.
"When we first settled in this place, the Gbagi people lived very far in remote areas and on their arrival they came close to us and we lived like one community until when the demolition squad struck," he added.
Mama Maryam appealed to the Gbagi people to be accommodative by assisting outsiders.
An elder of the community from the Gbagi race, said the non indigenes are complaining of land that does not belong to them.
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