Residents protest over government's plan to demolish 3,000 houses

Earlier this month, March, 2016, the Kaduna State Government announced it's plan to demolish 3,000 houses in Gbagyi community.

Samuel Aruwan, the governor's spokesperson, said the goal of the demolition was to return the land to the Kaduna Polytechnic, it's rightful owner.

“As the municipal authority in which all land in the state is vested upon, the government was again approached in 2015 by the Kaduna Polytechnic requesting action to preserve their title,” he said.

Using its development control agency, KASUPDA, the state government urged residents to vacate or face demolition.

However, residents of this community are very unhappy with this decision.

Premium Times reported that a lot of people urged the government to reconsider.

Ben Chuks, a grocery store owner said:

“We are not happy with the government’s stance on this and I tell you all of us will resist it, because we did not steal the land. We bought them with our money."

Others were very vocal, going as far as staging protest on March 17th.

“This land is even outside the state city centre but they are so interested that they want to evict us from our lands by all means and we shall reject it,” Mr. Bakay said.