From Fred Ezeh, Adanna Nnamani and Jude Idu, Abuja
Something unbelievable allegedly happened in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, recently. Some internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Abuja were rumoured to have engaged in land-grabbing, with the connivance of some officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
When the story filtered into town, it was shocking and unbelievable. The IDPs were accused of land-grabbing and leasing portions of the land that they temporarily occupied to people for financial benefits.
A few years ago, at the peak of Boko Haram activities in the North East states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, thousands of residents whose communities were destroyed by the insurgents found themselves in Abuja and some other locations across the country in search of refuge. Those in Abuja eventually settled in some makeshift camps in Garki Area 1, Lugbe, Kuje and several other locations.
Data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) had indicated that there were over 2.9 million IDPs in Nigeria and most of them were victims of Boko Haram insurgency from the North East.
A large number of those IDPs settled in the FCT, temporarily, with several authorised and unauthorised IDP camps spread across the city, mostly located around Lugbe, Garki, Kuchingoro, Kuje and Karmajiji. There were reports that a popular serving senator (names withheld) from the North East facilitated the movement of the IDPs to some locations in the FCT.
In the early days of their arrival, they, undoubtedly, enjoyed impressive visits from compassionate individuals and corporate organizations. They also received prompt and adequate attention from the FCT Administration and some other federal government agencies. Food and non-food items, as well as sanitary items, were provided for them to lift their standard of living, particularly women and children.
Through goodwill interventions of the public, makeshift classrooms were provided for the children to continue their formal education. Also, water and toilet facilities were provided, in addition to several other interventions that came from philanthropic and compassionate Nigerians, including non-governmental organizations who were, obviously, concerned about the unfriendly living conditions of the IDPs.
However, as time went by, the FCT Administration began to facilitate the return of the displaced persons to their indigenous communities after it was confirmed that peace had returned to the communities. And after that, the closure of the camps was “unofficially” announced, thus discouraging people from “patronizing” the camps.
But years after, activities and “patronage” in the camps continue after some of the IDPs refused to return to their communities, and chose to remain in the IDP camps, apparently enjoying the backing and support of some top politicians from the North East
Regrettably, FCTA officials couldn’t evict them, perhaps, due to weak enforcement capacity or lack of political will, hence they continued to enjoy “patronage” from compassionate Nigerians.
However, the love and compassion people have for the IDPs have begun to wane recently and turn sour. This is due to increasing allegations of criminal activities perpetrated within and around the camps either by the IDPs or people that might have infiltrated them, in addition to issues of sexual abuses that have led to several cases of teenage pregnancy.
Recently, it was alleged that the IDPs, particularly the ones at Durumi, Area 1, Abuja, had engaged in land scandals with the aim of “hitting it big”. The IDPs were accused of leasing some portions of land within and around the camp (Durumi, Area 1) to whoever indicated interest to either use the property for residential or commercial purposes.
The actions, according to observers, was, perhaps, necessitated by increasing drop in visits and donations by Nigerians lately, in addition to high cost of living and shrinking opportunities, hence poverty, hunger and abandonment, perhaps, pushed the IDPs into the business of land-grabbing and leasing out portions of the land temporarily allocated to them by the government to the highest bidder.
Findings revealed that the business of land is strictly for top officials of the IDP camps, who also enjoy unlimited access to the store where donated food and non-food items are kept as well as other privileges.
On a recent visit to one of the camps in Durumi, Area 1, Daily Sun observed that portions of the land within and around the IDP camp have been leased to outsiders and some “lucky” members of the camp to build make-shift shops for business purposes.
A top official of the camp, who took our correspondent round the settlement, confirmed that the entire land behind and in front of the camp were available for lease for either farming, fishery or for shops.
“We even have already built ponds ready for use. You don’t need to build new ones. We can rent it to you,” the official said.
When Daily Sun enquired about the cost of leasing the land, he said: “It’s only the camp chairman that can give you a price and allocate land to you.”
However, attempts to reach the camp chairman for information on the cost of leasing the land failed as he claimed to be busy, and promised to get back with the details, which he never did, and eventually stopped taking calls.
Meanwhile, Ikharo Attah, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement, was reported to have said that the enforcement team carried out demolition exercise recently around Old Federal Secretariat, Area I, Garki, Abuja, and the aim was to remove illegal structures there.
He was also reported to have confirmed that some people were paying as much as N100,000 to the IDPs in Durumi for the swampy part of the land infested with snakes and other reptiles around the perimeter fence of the old Federal Secretariat.
He said FCTA officials had realized that many of the illegal structures had been in the area for many years and were built within swamps and water bed. “What is very painful is that you cannot access some parts of the place until in the peak of the dry season. Even our earth-moving machines are sinking despite the fact that we are in dry season. So, you can imagine if it were during rainy season. That means once there is rainfall, you cannot access this place,” he said.
He vowed that the authority would prosecute those illegally selling land in the territory, saying the enforcement team has the mandate of the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, to arrest those allowing the crime and illegality to thrive.
Meanwhile, there was a mild twist to the story when some of the affected property owners turned to accuse FCTA officials of being deeply involved in the sale of land with fake papers.
Ibrahim Adebayo, one of the persons whose property was affected, said he was living in penury and regrets. He could not contain his anger while condemning the activities of land swindlers in Abuja whom, he alleged, were mostly staff of the FCTA.
Adebayo said he lost his entire savings, which he had channelled into buying a piece of land so he could be free from pocket-draining rent in Abuja.
Adebayo’s case may not be the only one, as many people claimed to have lost millions of naira to the demolition exercise carried out by the officials of the FCTA. They reluctantly admitted that they developed their property against the FCTA’s master plan with the aid of officials of the administration who usually took advantage of the unsuspecting public in their ignorance of the Land Use Act.
While narrating his ordeal after losing the three-bedroom flat built on a swampy drainage part of Durumi, close to the old Federal Secretariat, Adebayo, a motor mechanic, denied the statement that the land was sold to him by officials of Durumi IDP camp, as alleged by the administration.
Adebayo said: “It was difficult for me to believe that the FCTA officials could make up this kind of story. And how can anybody believe such a story that we bought land from IDPs? What a shame! I can say that this is not far from the Nigerian way of doing things. This government is all about deceiving people and telling more lies each day. How many are left in their mouths, I say how many more lies?”
While clearing doubts, he revealed that, in 2018, he was introduced to a staff of FCTA, precisely from the Development Control Department, who assured him that the land was genuine and good for residential buildings. The seller also informed him that many other people had bought from him the same way.
“The plots of land, according to him, were allocated to some rich people who wanted him to help them resell and that was how we bought from him. Another surprising thing was that we were issued with papers signed from the office of FCT Director of Lands. But now, everything to me was a scam. And the worst I can take from anyone is the rumour making the round that we bought the lands from IDPs.”
Adebayo, while regretting the loss, admonished desperate buyers to beware of the inherent danger in buying from scammers, some of whom, he said, presented themselves as FCTA officials.
On whether he would take legal action against such people (scammers), Adebayo told our reporter that initial efforts to recover his money attracted a threat to his life. He said, “I am a destitute now. My only saving grace is that my family has been in Lagos because my wife works with Lagos State government and two of my children study at University of Lagos, and they only visit Abuja during holidays.”
Adebayo, who now lives in a container in an undisclosed mechanic village, prayed for a more responsive government in Nigeria that would be a solution to not only his problem but that of the unsuspecting public who may fall victim, subsequently.
Mrs. Maria Ubandona, from Niger State, was another victim whose property fell under the FCT demolition bulldozers. She was also quick to condemn the ‘made up’ stories of buying land from the IDPs.
Maria, who was apprehensive talking to journalists, also alleged threats to her life from officials of FCTA who had earlier condemned their own side of the story.
She said: “I am even surprised that journalists who were supposed to have listened to our plight first wrote what the FCT officials told them, but my God shall fight for me. How can they even pretend to lie that we bought land from IDPs and for what purpose? How did they even make up the story, with no trace of truth? Do I look like someone who cannot identify a miscreant from the IDP camp? This is horrible to hear.”
Maria, who prayed that her loss was destined by God while quoting a Bible verse, which said “what God does not know does not,” addd that “God gave it to me and he has taken it back. I don’t have much to explain to anybody anymore, especially journalists who wrote from the government point of view. And when I read it from a national newspaper, I zeroed my mind with the resolve that I should accept my fate.
A single mother who lost her husband in one of the military operations in the North East, said that all her husband’s benefits were almost gone, if not for her businesses in different locations in Abuja: “I know that I can still endure it since I could manage my husband’s demise. Sometimes, life seems to be so hash to a person but if we go a little far from us, we see someone with bigger problems”.
An estate developer, who did not want his name mentioned, agreed that some estate developers, in the past, had contributed and, perhaps, were still contributing to numerous land scams in Abuja which, in some cases, attract demolition for contravention of the original FCT master plan and development policy.
He said: “Most times, some developers are in a hurry to give away buildings and recover their money, and won’t wait for the FCT administration to finish the engineering design of a particular location before moving in to develop it themselves.
“This practice, which is always carried out with dubious staffs of the administration, has caused lots of design distortions and sometimes people build on top of drainages and swampy areas as against the original design. Some have resulted in the blockage of drainages and making flash flood to claim lives of many during rainy season.”
The estate developer, however, shrugged off in disbelief the involvement of IDPs in the sale of lands in the FCT, stressing that the only genuine land should be the one that FCTA developed by themselves.
He said: “I have my reasons. As a land developer, I have come across many things and sometimes the matter ends in the court before both parties resolve their cases. I can tell you that there is a plethora of land cases pending in the courts owing to delibrate attempts to swindle the public.
“Have you heard of the case of re-allocating of lands to a new buyer with the same genuine allocation paper? And the question is, who issued two different genuine papers to two different buyers at the same time? How can that be done? Who operates the computer used to type the papers? Was the computer not manned by a human being? So, if you can give answers to all these, then I can as well tell you the answer to why it is possible for people to hide under the guise of IDPs to sell lands to the unsuspecting public?”
Commenting on the situation, a journalist with Wazobia FM, Abuja, Mr. John Emmanuel, said that the FCT administration may not be wrong in its actions after it was discovered that IDPs in the FCT allegedly claimed ownership of lands used to harbour them by the authority.
John further said that people drew near the IDP-occupied land to take advantage of them but were unfortunate because most of the plots were illegally allocated to people without genuine papers.
He said: “Is it not very unfortunate that people had thought that the lands temporarily mapped out to keep the IDPs from war-ravaged North East has become permanently theirs? So, I am not surprised that the bulldozer had to visit them as well.
“It is also worrisome that people have not learnt much from the past FCT administration, beginning from the time of Mallam El-Rufai as FCT Minister.”