Owners of houses in Plot 67 Kafe District, Gwarinpa, Abuja, (Winning Clause Estate), have dragged the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and Winning Clause Estate Limited before the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the House Committee of FCT and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for illegal demolition of their houses.
Several people were critically injured and property worth billions of naira destroyed when senior staff members of the Department of Development Control of the FCDA led over 60 armed soldiers and mobile policemen to Winning Clause Estate recently and pulled down 200 duplexes and damaged other properties.
In a petition dated March 26, 2014, by the Chairman of the Residents Association, Mr. Iyobosa Uwugiaren, on behalf of the house owners, the group requested the two chambers of the National Assembly and the rights commission to compel Winning Clause Limited to defray the cost of fixing the properties unjustly demolished in the estate on March 26, 2014.
In the petition, which was also sent to President Goodluck Jonathan and the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, the residents requested the various institutions to cause an investigation into the real ownership of the estate and advise home owners on the best way to engage Winning Clause Limited and mandate the estate developer to immediately regularise the allocations of all home owners transferred to it by Saraha Homes Limited and proceed to complete the same process at the Department of Development Control.
The petitioners also requested the various institutions to find out what order did the Development Control rely on to demolish their properties in the estate, when an Abuja High Court’s consent judgment between the feuding parties did not say they should remove any properties from the estate and why is it difficult for Winning Clause to implement the court order of November 28, 2013.
The aggrieved house owners have implored the institutions to use their good offices to prevail upon Winning Clause Limited to stop all acts of intimidation, harassment, extortion and willful damage to their property.
