Gbagyi, lepers clash over land
On July 10, 2009, Alhaji Isa Ali, the Chief of lepers at Koroko directed a letter of complaint to the office of the FCT Minister over boundary disputes between his people and the Gbagyi of Koroko village. In his second allegation, the chief said the former FCT Minister, el-Rufai, made an arrangement for N4,000 monthly […]
On July 10, 2009, Alhaji Isa Ali, the Chief of lepers at Koroko directed a letter of complaint to the office of the FCT Minister over boundary disputes between his people and the Gbagyi of Koroko village. In his second allegation, the chief said the former FCT Minister, el-Rufai, made an arrangement for N4,000 monthly allowance to be paid to every leper to keep them within their territory at Koroko, but that since the government left office in May 2007, the monthly allowance has ceased to come.
“…On behalf of the entire people of Alheri Special Camp, Yangoji in Kwali Local Government Area of the FCT, I am writing this letter of complaint to the Honourable Minister on the following issues: the boundary conflict between us and our neighbouring people of Koroko, we confirm that these people were compensated by the government before we were settled here. Therefore, we are calling on the Minister to please send his people to come and settle this matter before it becomes another hard conflict…The government of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai assisted us with an allowance of N4,000 monthly, so that we might comply with the rules that we should not move around begging. We received the allowance and abided by government regulations.”
Ali Isa added that since the swearing-in of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua on May 29, 2007, they have not received a single monthly allowance till today. In July, Isa disclosed to Weekly Trust that when the FCT Administration settled lepers at Alheri Settlement village at Koroko, they were equally given land with four boundary pillars demarcating them from their Gbagyi neighbours. The administration of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai equally left enough land for them to carry out normal activities, including farming.
The chief said they have school, a borehole with overhead tank, a health centre that was fully equipped with drugs but that the drugs disappeared with the change in government. The chief said their present predicament is that their neighbours have taken advantage of their physical unfitness to deprive them of their rights. Isa further disclosed that four pillars were made by the FCTA to indicate boundaries for both parties, but the Gbagyi destroyed the boundaries and claimed that their territory extends beyond what the FCTA allocated to them and therefore penetrated the lepers’ territory with agricultural activities.
The leader of the lepers equally disclosed that as soon as the place was commissioned, they settled there, but the Gbagyi commenced mischief by extending their farming activities into the territory of the less-privileged and refused to stop when he warned them. “They cultivate parts of our land every season, but we are afraid of challenging them because we are deformed. In an attempt to know whether they had truly acquired that portion, we attempted farming there one season but the Gbagyi chased us with cutlasses and warned that if we insisted on farming in that part of the land, they would engage in serious battle with us,” Isa said.
Continuing, Isa said, “There are excellent farmers among us in spite of our deformities. We cultivate maize, rice, guinea-corn, cassava, groundnuts, sugarcane and beans on the remaining land.” He also disclosed that one Ali Manager at Yangoji had for long engaged in cassava farming on a part of their land near the main road, saying that on a certain occasion, a secretary from the Social Welfare Office in Garki visited Ali’s farm. Isa told Weekly Trust that in the discussion that followed, Ali allegedly confessed that no one gave him the land and that the secretary made him to sign an undertaking to never have anything to do with the land again after the season’s harvest. The chief went further to state that the evils threatening the lepers’ territory include theft.
He also informed Weekly Trust that midnight on November 22, three fully-grown cows worth N150,000 each and belonging to the family of one Muhammadu Mai Nama were stolen from where they were tethered. “I suspected no one other than experts in the trade,” Isa said.
Speaking on health, Ali said when drugs were available in the health centre, patients came from ‘Ruga Fulani’ for treatment. Others came from Rubuchi and New Abaji in Kuje Local Government Council. “But now that drugs are nowhere to be found in the clinic, residents and neighbours have disappeared.”
On education, he said they had five male and five female teachers who teach their children in an excellent environment. A recent visit to the Gbagyi in their nucleated settlement in Koroko revealed that their population is roughly 4,000 with about 800 in school. Their chief who would not disclose his name said Mai Anguwa, the Environmental Officer, was in the best position to explain the situation.
Responding, the Chief Environmental Officer of the Gbagyi, Mr Bulus Gbagu, said the lepers were claiming beyond what they were given. According to Gbagu, when the FCTA created the camp, they allocated a wide area to the lepers, but the Gbagyi of Koroko complained to the FCT Administration that the camp had come too close to them. They equally complained that their school was very close to the lepers, therefore, the boundary pillars should be shifted so that the Gbagyi might have more land, and it was done.
“In the first demarcation, the trees around the school were carved into the lepers’ camp. Hajiya Hadiza, the former director of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), was at Koroko and they stopped the camp at the orchard full of cashew trees,” Gbagu said.
Gbagu also explained that neither the Gbagyi nor the lepers owned the orchard, but that it remains in the centre so that neither group would trespass into the territory of the other. He said the orchard is the property of Kwali Local Government and the intention of the government to plant other fruits there is yet to be realised.
Gbagu said the Gwari have good relationship with their neighbour residents of Alheri Village and he had never received any news related to land tussle from any Gbagyi who farms in the neighbourhood of the cashew trees. Gbagu went further to state that the Gwari are not in any way inconveniencing their neighbours at Alheri Special Camp. He said Chief Ali of Alheri Village often visits them but never disclosed that he had problem with any Gwari man.
When the camp was created, the government compensated those whose lands were occupied, but others unjustly wanted to claim compensation. “In the process, we identified and made them to understand that the government had given all those who deserved compensation; therefore, we would not leave any room for cheating.”
The chief suggested that the government should invite both parties and mediate fairly in the existing boundary disputes.
Meanwhile, Ali Harazimu, the manager of SLAN Oil at Yangoji, told Weekly Trust that he signed an undertaking when a secretary from the Welfare Office paid him a visit concerning the cassava farm. “I promised to leave the land before December, but I was given till end of December and I signed an undertaking to that effect,” he said, adding that, “I have sold the cassava farm to two people: one has paid and started harvesting while the other is harvesting and has promised to pay afterwards.”
Ali Isa, the chief of the lepers, said he would not set foot on the Gbagyi’s territory for his dear life. “I will do that on condition that the presence of policemen would guarantee security; otherwise, they will tear me into shreds. I do not go to them. We only meet on the road and greet,” he said.
Responding to the lepers’ demand for monthly allowance, the Deputy Director of Social Welfare Services, Mrs Folashade Ayileka, said the allowance was paid when the lepers were undergoing training for them to be self-reliant. She said during the training, each leper received the sum of N4,000 while the trainers were paid N7,000 monthly. “The payment of monthly allowance ended after the training, because they had acquired their skills. Varieties of seedlings, pumping machines and other necessary materials were provided for those who said they had interest in agriculture and they were trained along the line.”
On boundary dispute, Ayileka said the ministry would soon look into it. The Social Development Policy of 1989 equally stated that each of the three tiers of government of the federation is vested with the responsibility of providing for these categories of people. “Therefore, local and state governments should shoulder their responsibilities to reduce the influx of deformed persons into the FCT,” he said.
The Secretary of Social Development Secretariat, Hajiya Habiba Kalgo, said the Ministry of Social Welfare is aware of the problem and the FCT Minister is equally aware. “We are the ones that created the colony for them and we have not forgotten them. We will soon do something to assist them,” she said.