A woman was feared dead while other residents of Gbagyi Villa community in Kaduna State sustained injuries during a protest against the demolition of houses and other structures in the community.
According to a source, “Youth groups and other inhabitants of the area and from the neighbourhood came out to protest against the demolition of houses and other structures when they sited bulldozers and armed security men, who were deployed for the exercise.
“The uniformed men started shooting to scare the resilient youths, who were chanting songs and slogans. On hearing the news of the demolition and the gunshots, a woman simply identified as Sarah collapsed as her blood pressure was believed to have shot up.
“She was rushed to the hospital but unfortunately she couldn’t make it as she died before getting to the hospital.
“The youths that massively came out to defend the Gbaygi villa from demolition vowed to take their destiny into their hands to defend the community and defend the court judgment said to have been earlier secured by the residents of the community against the demolition exercise.”
Lukas Daniel, a resident, said: “If the authority that is supposed to defend the judgment is now rising against the community in total disobedience to the judgment, we wonder the kind of society we are living and the legacy government is bequeathing to the citizenry.
“Though some houses had been demolished while the youths were resisting, eventually, the resilient youths prevailed and KASUPDA with their security men retreated with a promise to return on a surprise attack, perhaps at night.”
Another resident, Haruna said: “The same government that inflicted a hard time on the masses is now out to round off by causing more havoc in destroying the little roof we have over our heads. Following the court judgment in favour of Gbagyi Villa community, Governor Nasir el-Rufai asked us to fill out a form for regularisation at the cost of N20,000 and the majority had done that.
“Again, about 10 days ago, KASUPDA brought a letter that el-Rufa’i had ordered that all building approval obtained before the court case is null and void, asking us to go and start fresh building approval processes.
“He gave us 60 days to start the process through KASUPDA and we were ready to comply, as we have visited the KASUPDA to commence the fresh process but KASUPDA officials said the forms were not yet ready.
“It is not yet 60 days based on the notice KASUPDA gave us and we didn’t even say we are not ready to abide by the obnoxious policy just for peace. They are the people that are not even ready with the forms needed, yet this afternoon (yesterday), the same Kaduna State government through the same KASUPDA invaded Gbagyi Villa and started demolition of houses."