By SUMAILA OGBAJE

Residents of CRD Layout 1 Lugbe, Abuja have called on the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, to intervene and save them from illegal land grabbers.

The residents, In a statement by their representative, Alhaji Adamu Mohammed, on Friday in Abuja, alleged that the land grabbers were hell bent on dispossessing them of their landed properties.

Mohammed alleged that some individual had been parading themselves as members of staff of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to takeover plots of land from the unsuspecting residents.

According to him, the activities of the people are becoming embarrassing.

“They have invaded CRD Lugbe 1 Layout to harass residents that they are coming to take over the lands with their fictitious notice which cannot be traced to FCDA.

“When the suspected criminals were challenged by residents to identify themselves, it was discovered that they were fake because they could not provide any identification.

“Residents of CRD Lugbe layout woke up on Thursday, to see some strange looking fellows serving them demolition notices purportedly issued by Development Control,” he said.

Mohammed said the actions were being taken against the court order that there should be stay of execution pending the determination of the case.

He said the ownership of the disputed land had been the subject matter of several litigations with the court’s ruling in favour of the residents.

Mohammed maintained a close look at the demolition notice revealed that the signatories did not indicate their names and notices are not addressed properly.

According to him, these discrepancies reinforce the belief of the residents that these fellows are mobilised by land grabbers to do their bidding.

“This type of illegally should not be allowed in any democracy.

“The government should intervene in the matter with a view to calling the perpetrators to order and urge him wait for determination of the case.

“We use this medium to call on President Bola Tinubu to stop these faceless people destroying the good work of the FCT minister in maintaining Abuja master plan.

“We urged the minister to intervene by calling some individuals in the FCDA that were backing the perpetrators to order or at best set up a panel to investigate the matter before it degenerated to a public disorder.

“It is time to expose the illegal activities of some of the development control staff, who work hand in hand with private estate developers to sabotage our lands,” he said. (NAN)

Update news