How 7-day-old baby saved parents house from demolition

Contrary to the popular saying that the law
is blind, officials of the Federal Capital
Territory Administration (FCTA),
penultimate week proved that the law also
has a human face.
The officials disproved the popular saying
when they spared the house of a woman
who had given birth to a baby girl seven
days before a demolition exercise in Gishiri
village, Katampe Extension, in Abuja
Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
Mrs Mercy Ezekiel, a resident of Gishiri
gave birth to her baby girl through
Caesarean operation few days before
officials of the development control
department of the FCTA swooped on the
village to demolish structures which they
termed illegal.
Speaking to journalists, Mrs Ezekiel said
news of impending demolition got to her at
the hospital while she was still
recuperating after the birth of the baby.
“I heard that officials of the FCTA came
and marked some houses but when I came
back from the hospital, I looked around
but did not see any mark for demolition on
our house. So, I assumed that the houses
that were not marked would not be
affected by the exercise,” she explained.
Other residents of the settlement, who were
affected by the demolition exercise,
complained that indigenes of the village
had assured them that the village would
not be demolished, hence their decision to
build and rent houses there.
A tenant, Ibeneme Chika, said that most of
the property owners in the village bought
land from one Hajiya Adebayo, an indigene
of the village, with the assurance that there
would be no demolition until after the
general elections in 2015.
“I’m a tenant and I moved in here only in
September 2013. The person I rented the
house from told me he bought the land
from Hajiya. This Hajiya is the one that
has been selling the whole land in this
vicinity. Even though she informed
residents that the sale is temporal, she
assured them that there is no problem
with the land for now until after the 2015
general election. So, people rushed to buy
these lands.”
A landlord in the area, Pastor Akpos Felix
Oga of the Anointed House of Victory, also
said he bought and built with the
assumption that they could live there
without disturbance till 2017.
“I bought this land measuring 50 by 50
from Hajiya and built some living rooms
for members of my church which I later
rented out at the rate of N150,000 for the
self-contain rooms. Even though the land
was sold to us temporarily as we were told
the rightful owners with allocation papers
for it would come for it later, we were
assured that we would be here for at least
four years before they come to take
ownership of the land,” he lamented.
Hajiya Adebayo however denied all the
allegations, saying she didn’t sell land to
anyone but only collects rent from them.
“I did not sell the land to them. I rent it
out to thoise who want to build and we
contribute and build and share the
proceeds from rent,” she said.
The district officer of Katampe, Kalu Amadi,
described the situation where individuals
sell government land under the pretext of
village expansion without the necessary
requirements for the process as
unfortunate.
While noting that the act is criminal, he
advised residents to seek redress with law
enforcement agencies since the FCTA does
not handle criminal matters