….As angry youths attack over resettlement exercise
By Josephine Ella
Series of onslaught allegedly carried out by angry Gbagyi youths have sent residents of the Apo resettlement estate phase 11 parking from their homes.
The attack which eyewitnesses said lasted for one week, started Tuesday evening when angry youths besieged the newly established developing area in their hundreds attacking everyone in sight and destroying properties.
Our correspondent gathered that in this frightening dimension, that the protesting youths invaded the estate demanding that their farmlands which have been encroached upon and developed into residential quarters be returned to them.
“We have come to claim our lands”, an eyewitness, Chukwuma Ezeh quoted the youths to have chanted as they destroyed properties of homeowners and other individual developers whose properties were still under construction disrupting work by those on sites.
Following these attacks, the affected residents under the umbrella body of Apo Resettlement Estate Association have called on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene by prevailing on the security agencies to put a stop to the attacks.
The residents alleged that while there were threats to their lives and properties, the police stood aloof making no effort to stop the rampaging youths.
“We write to urgently bring to your attention a looming crises of gargantuan proportion which could blossom into another Jos crises in Abuja in the next few days if your Excellency do not immediately direct an urgent Security intervention as residents may be forced to look for extra legal means of self defense in the face of seeming inability of the police and the State Security Service to defend us from the current destruction of our properties going on in the Estate,” the letter jointly signed by the affected members read in part.
The group claimed in the letter which was copied to the office of the National Security Adviser, (NSA) Inspector General of Police amongst others and jointly signed by Hon. Okey Iloe, Victoria Namani, Barrister Bola Audu, Chidi I. Iwodi and Umar S.D that “On enquiry, the mob claimed to be Gbagyi/Gwari people claiming that government is yet to compensate them for their farmlands which has been turned into an estate”.
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