The Honourable Commissioner, Public Complaints Commission, FCT Comrade Dalhatu Ezekiel Musa has once again faulted the ongoing demolition exercise embarked upon by the Federal Capital Territory Administration at the Ido Sarki area of the nation’s capital.
Speaking as a guest on the Programme, ‘Newsnight’ which aired Friday night on Arise TV, Dalhatu said that due to myriad of petitions his office received from the owners of the affected buildings, he urged the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Mohammed Bello to stay action on the demolition exercise to enable the Commission to find an amicable resolution. He said he was disappointed that the advice was ignored.
“As an investigative agency of the government, we are saddled with the responsibility to always ensure that justice is served and check maladministration, injustice in the administrative process of any government institution. I will first speak to the fact that when we received avalanche of complaints with regards to the demolition at Ido Sariki, first I called the attention of the administration of FCT through the Honourable Minister to call his attention to the first that we received complaints and they should stay action while we work through to find a way around it so that we can have a conclusive end where every party will be satisfied with what is happening. I also recommended the minister to convene a stakeholders engagement where all parties will be on board, then we have face to face interface, testimonials and then commitments from people involved so that we would be able to resolve it. That is what Public Complaints Commission is all about. Part of what we are doing at the Public Complaints Commission was what took me to the site today.”
“I have cause to ensure that we see for ourselves what was reported. In Public Complaints Commission, we do not just deal with the hearsay or whatever the complainant will write, that was why I was at Ido Sarki with my team, the entire management team and investigation officers to see for ourselves the level of damages and how true it is that this issue happened” the Commissioner said.
He said he has doubts if the Minister was properly briefed on the situation before officials of the Development Control department of the Ministry embarked on the demolition exercise. He wondered why the Development Control department officials will wait for the owners of the building to complete the buildings before they move in to demolish them rather than prevent the owners from erecting the buildings in the first place.
He said, “I repose some level of confidence in the Minister owing to the fact his antecedents and the kind of person he is. I have some level of doubt that he was not properly briefed on the situation on ground that was why I said that. These persons that their buildings and structures were demolished are Nigerians. First and foremost, they are citizens. If you have a government agency like the Development Control, they ought to control every development that is happening in FCT and they are been paid with taxpayers money to do their job. That is the second part I said it is clear some people did not do their jobs. The FCDA is to ensure that they regulate the development that is tagged to be illegal. Development control to me should not be development destroyers. They should be able to act and nip in the bud anytime.
“From the buildings you see there, you will know that these are low income earners. They are the lower class of the citizens of Nigeria. They couldn’t have build those buildings within one or two months. First you must do a foundation which will take you one or two months, you must take it to the lintel level, roof it, plaster it. Some people have fenced and dug boreholes. Some people said they have occupied the houses for more than one, two years, where was development control? Do we wait until these structures are erected with hard earned money and all you are interested is to come and destroy them. Mr President said he wants to lift 100 million people out of poverty between now and in the next 10 years, the way I see it, you are recruiting more people into poverty” he added.
Earlier on Friday, the Commissioner led a delegation of the Commission to the Ido Sarki to inspect the demolished structures. He said from his investigation and interaction with affected residents, over 200 buildings including a church and a 30-room hostel occupied by students of the University of Abuja were among the affected structures. A resident of the area told the Commissioner that a hospital in the area was demolished while patients were receiving treatments and it took the efforts of residents to evacuate the patients.
