Some residents of Shawari 5 area of Maiduguri, Borno State capital, on Thursday, lamented the demolition of their houses by the State government without adequate notice and compensation.
The affected buildings are located at the back of 7 Division Garrison Command of the Nigerian Army.
LEADERSHIP reports that while the state government’s bulldozer was bringing down the buildings, the victims were picking up vital household items from the demolished houses, while those whose houses were yet to be demolished but had been marked for demolition, were busy removing their roofs ahead of the exercise.
Yusuf Yunusa, whose building has been demolished, said they were given only three-day notice before the demolition, adding that he spent about N18 million in building the house.
He appealed to Borno State governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, to see how he can compensate them for the demolition or provide alternative shelters for them since they had no place to go with their family members.
Similarly, Abdulateef Mohammed, whose house was marked but was yet to be demolished, appealed to Governor Zulum to give them enough time to enable him to remove his belongings from the house before the demolition exercise.
“My house has not been demolished, but it has been marked for demolition. Government should give us more time to enable us to locate a house to pack our belongings to. If the house is eventually demolished, I will not have a place to live with my family. The demolition has thrown a lot of us into confusion because many of us don’t have a place to go,” he lamented.
For Alhaji Mustapha, who admitted that majority of the residents of the area don’t have titles to their lands, being that they bought them from the community leaders (Bulama), appealed for a sort of compensation from the State government so that they don’t lose what they have invested entirely.
But, reacting to the claims, the General Manager of Borno State Urban Planning Development Board, TP Liman Mustapha, said the essence of the demolition exercise was to secure the land being set aside for the upgrade of Muhammadu Buhari International Airport Maiduguri, adding that there was no compensation for the owners of the demolished houses.
He said the residents have been informed about the illegality of their occupation since 2020, stressing that they have been following up since to secure the land and stopped them from developing the lands but they ignored authorities and kept building houses.
“The notice has been there for long. Series of television and radio programmes have been carried out to sensitise them of the illegality of occupying the place. We have the master plan of this area since 1978. We have targeted 500 meteres of space from the fence of the Airport. We started with 200 meteres and in the next coming week, we will be heading for the 500 meters,” TP Mustapha stated.
Corroborating TP Mustapha, the Acting Regional Manager, Muhammadu Buhari International Airport, Adamu Sheikh Matunkolo, said with the upgrading of the Airport by the federal government, it has become necessary for additional space for the facility.
“As you are aware, Muhammadu Buhari International Airport has been upgraded by the federal government to start international operations and there are requirements we have to meet. If we don’t meet them, the target of federal government can’t be achieved.
“We sympathise with the people who don’t want to obey this order, we have our plan and our plan is that the area slated for demolition is a buffer zone. We have what we call crash gate and the purpose of the crash gate internationally is that aircraft is landing and taking off. When they land, they may skid off the runaway and you know very well that the speed with which they are coming with.
“If we don’t have any structure outside this place, it will be disastrous. So we requested for the creation of additional space from the Borno State Government. We even put a peg and signages on the land, but they removed them,” Matunkolo added.
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