Gishiri Demolition Will Ensure Safety of Abuja, Say Victims

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

Rather than bemoan the perceived overzealousness and insensitivity of the FCT authorities, some victims of the latest demolition exercise in Gishiri, a densely populated slum contiguous to highbrow Maitama District have lauded the exercise.

The FCT Administration on Thursday bulldozed the slum in a bid to rid the place of criminals and drug dealers.

Some of the victims said that the FCT would remain unsafe for the residents except the authorities step up the demolition of the slum. 

Craving anonymity, one of the victims, who hails from a state in the North-central zone, said that she had never slept with her two eyes closed throughout her two years’ stay in Gishiri. 

“To be brutally frank, I don’t want to be selfish here; the level of insecurity in Gishiri is quite disturbing. Even though my house has been demolished, I am happy because it pains me to see innocent people attacked and their items stolen from them. “Yesterday, a pregnant woman was stabbed and her phone snatched from her,” she said.

She said the criminal gang operated as a syndicate and took delight in dispossessing the vulnerable residents of Mpape and Mabushi of their hard-earned money and other valuable items.

“Sometimes as early as 8:30pm they are there raiding communities.  When I am out till 8pm, I don’t bother coming back because it is dangerous. It was hard to stop them because it was like some of those people with rope round their waist were supporting them, because after attacks, when one reports, they simple say there is nothing they can do”, she narrated. 

She decried a situation where Gishiri had literally become a safety net for all the criminal elements who committed robbery and other crimes in the city and other parts of the FCT.

Senior Special Assistant to FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement, Ikharo Attah, who led the FCTA team, said that his team would ensure total demolition of Gishiri slum and other squatter settlements. 

He said the authorities acted based on tip off about criminal activities associated with Gishiri.

He said the team had the mandate of FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello to rid the slum of illegalities and security threat, vowing he would return to Gishiri to remove all illegal shacks in violation of FCT masterplan. 

On his part, Director, FCTA Department of Development Control, Muktar Galadima, fumed that some of the structures were erected on the right of way of a major road corridor traversing Jahi, by Next Cash Supermarket and Maitama Junction. 

He urged plot owners in Gishiri to take possession of their property failure of which the FCTA would make them to bear the cost of demolition of illegal structure on their property in the future.