The Ruga community has been shrinking as housing development grows in the Katampe district of Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory.
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Those years before she was born, Abuja was a vast Savannah grassland inhabited by indigenous ethnic groups. Mrs Saidu wondered if the years her community has occupied the land do not matter as the visitors claim.Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Villagers who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said they had received numerous orders in the last two years to vacate the area or specific plots of land.
The area councils also allocated land in some areas until this power was withdrawn due to cases of multiple allocations of the same parcels of land. Adamu Garba, a 35-year-old cattle herder in the Ruga, said the owners were paid N1.2 million as compensation for the loss of the huts.“We should not have accepted the compensation. We want to keep our homes but without the constant fear that we would be thrown out any time,” Mr Garba said in Hausa.For Mrs Saidu, eviction would cost her more than her home. It would cut her access to medical care at the Maitama General Hospital, and her seven children would quit school.
The Land Use Act stipulates that communities existing on a parcel of land before the establishment of the Act automatically have the right of ownership. However, a property rights specialist, Kazeem Oyinwola, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES, said the Land Use Act does not apply to the federal capital territory.
He noted that section 6 of the FCT Act provides for compensation to land owners affected by the FCT’s creation within a particular timeframe that has since elapsed. However, he said many refused to vacate the land despite getting government compensation. In some cases, he said, they try to extort money from the allottees.
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