Last month, the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) demolished a shanty area, which is known as Lungu, in Gwarimpa and the action led to many controversies.
The first controversy started when the residents said the demolition led to the death of two persons, a baby and its mother.
According to reports, while the demolition was ongoing, a nursing mother was not allowed to enter her home to take her little baby that was sleeping inside.
The reports further alleged that as the nursing mother was restrained, the bulldozers that were doing the demolition chewed down her house and the collapsing walls crushed the baby.
However, when the woman noticed what had happened, she angrily reached for a sharp object and stabbed herself to death.
When the news spread, the people could not be held back from the protest that made them take over almost all of Gwarinpa Estate and later spilled over to the Zuba-Kubwa-Abuja Expressway. They made bonfires on the highway and held the city down for so many hours until soldiers from the Guards Brigade were deployed to handle the situation.
But the news of these deaths has remained a subject of disagreement between the residents, who are mostly FCT natives, and the government agencies that carried out the demolition.
The residents insisted that the baby and its mother died, but the agencies believe it is a story that was cooked up.
While the controversy goes on, with the FCDA saying that it had taken a legal action against the persons that cooked up the death news, when our correspondent visited Lungu at the weekend, nobody could confirm the incident.
Only rubbles of the demolished buildings adorned the area, and some residents who were made homeless as a result of the demolition still took shelter at a nearby primary school.
A mother of five who spoke to our correspondent at the primary school said her husband was still “hustling around to get a another place for the family. Those that had savings before the demolition have gotten new places, but we that didn’t have are still here.”
According to her, “what even made ours worst was that we weren’t at home during the demolition and some evils stole half of our things.”
Though other families occupying the primary school refused to speak for the fear of getting arrested, the mother of five said about 10 families sleep in each of the classrooms and vacate it in the morning to give way for the pupils of the school.
“Many families, let me say 10 sleep in every classroom, but we all leave in the morning to allow pupils use them for school,” she said.
However, in an interview with Blueprint, Josiah Yerima Mawurika, the Secretary to the Chief of the village, was angered by FCDA’s action, saying “government should not force our youth into doing wrong thing out of frustration.”
He said the incessant demolition and acquisition of land and property of the Gbagyi, who are the original indigenes of the FCT, is becoming overbearing and could force youth into doing things that are against the law.
