Why market days terrify farmers in Abuja community

Every Kuje market day, residents and farmers in Gebi Mangoro of Kuje Area Council are tensed due to the activities of hoodlums. They are also worried about the deplorable condition of the road that leads to the community. They also alleged that commercial motorcyclists hike fares on the market days. The market, which opens every […]

Every Kuje market day, residents and farmers in Gebi Mangoro of Kuje Area Council are tensed due to the activities of hoodlums. They are also worried about the deplorable condition of the road that leads to the community. They also alleged that commercial motorcyclists hike fares on the market days.

The market, which opens every four days, is rewarding but not all the farmers who take their produce to the market get home with proceeds from the sales.

The residents said hoodlums usually waylay them and dispossess them of their belongings.

Some residents of the community said the activities of the hoodlums, who also steal motorcycles, peak during festive seasons. 

They said plying the deplorable road to the market with  their farm produce is a nightmare and that though the bad state of the road is discomforting, the robberies are more traumatising.

While they contend with hoodlums on the road, the unrestrained activities of herders on their farmlands also affect their income.

Isaac Shaba, one of the farmers, said he only got N45, 000 from his four hectares of maize farm after it was destroyed by cattle. He said he got the money after engaging the community’s leaders when he discovered that herders had destroyed his farm.

A commercial motorcyclist in the community, Oluwatobi Sani, said it cost between N800 and N1,200 to get to Kuje from the community. He said plying the road comes at a great cost because of the  danger of hoodlums.

He said the fare depends on negotiation, weather or season, availability of fuel, among other factors.

Sani said they were not happy about the empty police outpost in the village.  The building had been unoccupied for about four years after it was constructed.

Another resident, Isaac Shaba, said since the building was constructed, “police officers have never been seen near it.” 

The building has since started crumbling. The ceiling is coming down and affecting the fans.

Termites have damaged a great portion of the woods of the roofing. Some of the  louvre glasses have been broken, while the protective net covering on the windows have been damaged.

Shaba said the security of the residents now lies with the vigilante group. 

Shaba added that some residents shouldered the responsibility of the demands of the vigilante group. 

Shaba, who is also a member of the vigilante group, said they took turn at night to ensure security in  the community.

“We have been attacked several times. In the last attack, we lost a member of the vigilante group to the bandits,” he said.

Shaba said the hoodlums attacked residents; especially people returning from the farm or market, both during the day and at night. He said such attacks were always possible because the road was always lonely and bad, coupled with poor GSM network.

He said some of the victims that recounted their ordeal said the hoodlums usually blocked the road at isolated spots, stopped them and ordered them to lie on the ground and then collect valuable things from them. He said some of the residents are physically assaulted as well.

Shaba said after the hoodlums attacked the entire community in broad daylight, they formed a vigilante group comprising of almost every ethnic group in the community. 

He said the hoodlums’ notoriety is at its peak on Kuje market days and during festive periods.

 “On market days, they stay on the road either early in the morning or in the evening to rob motorcyclists.

“When they discovered that people were aware of their activities, they moved into the bush. They have robbed residents of many motorcycles,” he said.

He further said the deplorable road aided the activities of the hoodlums because motorcyclists would have to slow down at several spots to avoid ditches thereby giving the hoodlums advantage to attack them.

Shaba said police officers might have decided not to come to the community due to the bad road and absence of GSM service providers.

He said residents usually gather at a particular location to make and receive phone calls. 

“The problem that made police not to come could be the road and poor network. However, if the road is good, we have hope that security will improve,” he said.

Shaba said the road usually becomes impassable during the rainy season, a situation which compounds the woes of farmers who usually find it difficult to convey their farm produce to the market, while few commercial motorcyclists that ply the road at that period charge very high fees.  

“If you had been here during the rainy season, this vehicle won’t take you back  because the road gets slippery and cars could get stuck for days,” he said.

He said residents trek long distances because few could afford the services of commercial motorcyclists.

Another resident, Barmani Noma, said the community is without electricity.  

He said efforts to get the attention of government officials to their plight had fallen on deaf ears as no one seems interested in the community except during electioneering campaigns.

“We had been promised that the road would be fixed during their campaigns here, and we have reported it to Kuje Area Council, but we are still waiting for them. We have followed up concerning the road but our voices have fallen on deaf ears.

“Our councillors will tell us they will talk to the government but I can’t say if they really do,” Barmani said. 

Apart from security issues, the residents said getting potable water came at a great cost.

Barmani said the boreholes in the community were inadequate considering the number of residents. He said residents woke up very early to fetch or risk being on very long queues at the three mechanised boreholes in the community.

“The boreholes are not enough for us and people from neighbouring communities also fetch from there,” he said.

Though Barmani  commended government for  establishing schools and a healthcare centre in the community, he said if the government could provide other social amenities, including electricity, potable water and empower the youths, the entire FCT would be better for it.

When contacted, FCT Police Command Spokesman, Jesse Manzah, told our reporter on phone that the command was going to hold a stakeholders meeting in Kuje to sort out some of the security issues there. 

The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Chairman of the council, Usman Haruna, said the police outpost was constructed through the community’s effort under the past administration.

He said the council had already written to the police command to provide police personnel to the outpost in order to checkmate crime in the area.

He also said there are five boreholes which the council provided, saying two were motorised and three are hand pump to cushion water problem in the community.

“The community has not come to lay complaints about any borehole that has broken down. I advise the community to try and channel the complaint through the councillor of the area for urgent action,”  he said.

The media aide added that the council has already made provision for the rehabilitation of rural feeder roads across the 10 wards of the council in the 2018 budget, saying Kabi Mangoro is among the roads to be rehabilitated.