The Commissioner Public Complaint Commission (PCC FCT) Hon. Ezekiel Dahaltu has advocated for the establishment of Federal Capital Territory Indigenous People’s Commission and integration of 858 communities into the city’s master plan.
He stated these in a keynote address yesterday at the annual Karu Gbagyi festival with the theme “My culture and I,” at the Sa’karuyi palace Abuja.
He said the Gbagyi race and its culture was facing existential threats and called on the government to play significant role in preserving the rich cultural heritage of the indigenous people of Abuja.
He called on the minister of the Federal Capital Territory to give land titles to Gbagyi communities and halt all demolition exercises.
“Today, Gbagyi race is at a cross road and as a majority tribe here in the FCT, we are to set the pace for others to follow but we can’t do or achieve this stride without realigning with our culture. Incredible feats have been reached and can be attained using our culture.
“Sadly, this strange culture has come to stay but the good news is, we can as well use culture in the FCT to deliver our people from the shackles of every external challenge we are faced with including government marginalization.
“We could not be talking about culture and not refer to it as our identity. Part of those factors we could always look back to and call our identity is our land, our peculiar abodes and as well as our attires,” he said.
He said the existential threat hovering around their culture in the FCT is the indiscriminate encroachment of their lands, indiscriminate demolition of their abodes and gradual erosion of their cultural attires.
