By Donald Iorchir
Indigenous people of Dagbalo community in Apo area of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to launch an investigation into the past activities officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) on the area of allocation of plots, particularly those whose certificates of occupancy (Cs of O) were approved in less than the stipulated one year.
Speaking to journalists at the weekend, on behalf of the community, the leader of Dagbalo community, Rev. Danjuma Tanko, said commencing a probe on the ill activities of FCDA officials “will aid in healing the wounds suffered by vulnerable indigenes of Abuja who have been subjected to untold hardship and all manner of unearthed treatment by the past FCT administration.”
He said the FCTA, through it department of resettlement and compensation, led a bulldozer on July 30, 2013, to wipe the Dagbalo community and destroyed their farm lands without any resettlement or compensation and allocated same area to One Mr Owuora, the owner Owuora Group of Companies.
He said: “It took the FCDA officials led by Director of resettlement and compensation, Mr Francis Okechuckwu, five days with red armed soldiers loaded in a pickup van to wipe off our entire community.
“Our people were helpless and being armless all we could do was to report the matter to the nearest police division at Apo which we advised to go to court to seek redress and the case was immediately filed to the FCT High Court at Jabi and now in FCT court over two years ago and all efforts by our council to see the quick dispensation of justice has proved abortive and therefore causing untold hardship and more suffering to our people even as we squatting with our neighbours.
“Counsel to the FCDA joined in frustrating the case by failing to tender his redress for adoption which ought to have been done since July, 2015 before the court went on recess and resumption the next adjournment was on the 17th of October 2015, neither the director nor their defence counsel were in court to tender their redress for adoption.”
Continuing, he said: “Also about this time last year the FCDA called for settlement out of court which we did not object but for five months the failed to fulfil their promises and instead their tried to lobby me to sale out my community and I rejected it. So, we went back to court and since then the FCDA resorted to delaying the court processes without respect to the judicial process.”