The FCT Christian Elders Forum has again called on the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Usman, to investigate the unlawful activities of policemen over land matters, claiming that the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) have continuously used them to disobey court orders.
The Christian elders, in a statement, accused the Managing Director of FHA, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, of using armed policemen to harass and demolish churches on FHA estates, with intent to convert the lands to his personal use.
Executive secretary of the forum, Hassan Macaulay said: “We have numerous complaints from church leaders against Senator Ashafa and FHA. Our investigations also revealed that despite having all legal documents, the FHA boss continue to defy court orders and use policemen to harass and intimidate these churches leaders and end up demolishing their churches.
“The policemen sometimes threaten church leaders with trumped-up allegations of human trafficking. We are not in a Banana republic. Some politicians believe they can import the kind of lawlessness they exhibited in their states into Abuja. We believe that Senator Ashafa is out to replicate his wanton grabbing of lands for himself and his godfathers as he did in Lagos state between 1999 and 2010, during his tenures as Executive Secretary of the Lagos state Land Use and Allocation Committee and Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Lands Bureau. Nigerians will not forget in a hurry.
“Because of the peculiar nature of church ownership, some government officials quickly take advantage of this to demolish their churches and claim their lands at any slight opportunity. We totally condemn this. We are prepared to resist this illegality at all costs. The right of the church in a society like ours is not deniable. We also want President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola to call Senator Ashafa to order and make him to respect court orders.”
The church elders had last week raised alarm over the manner churches built on FHA plots were being forcefully taken away from them by the agency.
Following their petition to the Force Headquarters last week, the Inspector General of Police had reportedly withdrew policemen attached to some government agencies to forestall the increasing reports of forceful ejection of occupants and illegal demolition of properties using armed policemen as cover in Abuja.
FHA leadership was recently accused by Nigerians of poor management of their estates with increasing insecurity and breakdown of infrastructure such as roads and electricity.
Critics have, therefore, called on Federal Ggovernment to privatize all FHA estates across the country so that the standards can be improved upon.