The Gbagyi natives of Nyanya – Gwandara in Karu local government area of Nasarawa state, Thursday protested the demolition of some of their houses and seizure of ancestral land located at Nayanya – Gwandara by the state government.
Blueprint reports that the protesters, who carried placards with inscription, ‘Gov AA Sule, leave our land’, ‘Gov Sule stop invasion and unlawful demolition of our houses,” converged at the demolition site in the area.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Danjuma Dauda Shazhimi, said the protest by the natives was premised on the demolition of some of their houses and seizure of their ancestral land by the state government.
He said officials of the Nasarawa State Development Control invaded the community with bulldozer and mobile police men to pull down over 30 houses, which he said belonged to natives of the area.
He alleged that over 200 hectares of their ancestral land, which he said belonged to Iyakoji Family of Nyanya Gbagyi have been taken over by the state government.
He said despite a High Court judgment, restraining the state government from invasion and trespassing into the land, officials of the state development control went ahead to pull down some houses.
“In fact, there was a court judgement, which we have a copy, that restrained the state government from invading and trespassing into our ancestral land,” he said.
Shazhimi claimed, despite that the community gave out 100 hectares of land to the state government, officials of the development control still came to demolish their houses.
A window, who is a mother of four children, Mrs. Faith Solomon, wept openly, saying she built the house after the death of her husband some years ago, lamenting: “We now have nowhere to go as our house now has been demolished by the state development control.
“I invested all we had to build after the death of my husband, only to receive a call that my house has been pulled down with I and my children now stranded.”
