….Appeals to Gov Sani to prevail on KASUPDA, others to respect Appeal Court order
From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
People of Matagi, a community in Chikun Local Government area of Kaduna State which is located behind popular Kaduna Polytechnic Quarters, have strongly appealed to the State Governor, Uba Sani to prevail upon some of the government agencies to respect and obey the April 2022 Appeal Court’s order restraining the Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna State Government and others from invading the community.
That Appeal Court order retrained Kaduna State Urban Property Development Authority (KASUPDA) and Kaduna Vigilance Service (KADVIS) to immediately halt the invasion of their 57.5 hectares of community land.
The physically distressed locals appealed on Thursday, July 21 while conducting newsmen around their community over the development.
Speaking on behalf of the community, Bala Abdullahi told journalists that “we were given judgment in court and KADGIS was ordered to issue us Certificates of Occupancy (CofOs). But they didn’t. KASUPDA asked us to get the building permit, we started building only for them to come and mark, and on a Saturday, they came with KADVIS officials and started demolishing some of our buildings.
“From all evidence and the wisdom of the court, it’s our land because the court charged them to pay one million for locking us up, which they did and they also charged them to pay our lawyers, which they also did.
“We are begging government to obey court order because people are coming with allocation order given to them by the former government”, he revealed.
Speaking further, Abdullahi said that their appeal to the new government is that KADVIS and KASUPDA should stay off their land.
“We are law-abiding and we want the government to obey the order. Kaduna Polytechnic obeyed the order and their portion has since been demarcated. They have been staying away from here. only KASUPDA and KADVIS are coming here.
“The judgment and the order stated that the hectares of the land belong to us. We are begging our governor and may God intervene for him to do the needful.
“This land belongs to us since before Nigeria gained independence. Our forefathers cleared the land and have been living here since then,” he said.
A land owner in the area, Reverend Emmanuel Olorunmagba said, “the problem is that the government under Governor Nasir El-Rufai refused to obey the judgment of an appeal court in favour of the community which they did not challenge.
“From the demolished houses, over 30 people have been rendered homeless. They were those chased out from their villages by insecurity, only to be rendered homeless where they were finding shelter in Matagi Community,” he said.
A woman that allegedly had portion of her land allocated to someone else, Comfort Luka, said, “after the judgment, KASUPDA came and demolished our houses and even my farmland has been allocated to another person. We have suffered insecurity in Chikun LGA and we are peaceful, hoping that our cries would be heard,” she stressed.
An elder in the community, Samaila Dogo in his comments, said “one man came one time, an army man that they have allocated a plot to him here. We explained to him that the court gave us a favourable judgment and he said thank God he hasn’t paid for the allocation, so we never heard from him again
“We appeal to the new governor to intervene on this matter,” he appealed.