Residents of Jabi Masalachi area of Abuja have been thrown into confusion after the demolition of the chief’s palace by the FCT Task Force on City Sanitation.
It was reported that the task force had acted on the instruction of FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, to pull down illegal structures in the area.
A resident, Ayuba Kefas, stated that the demolition of the palace has caused concern among the indigenes of the community as they “now had no place to converge for meetings” that required the attention of the chief.
Kefas stated, “This is the first time this kind of thing is happening, especially demolishing the palace of a chief in any settlement in the FCT”.
He stated further that the situation became worrisome to residents about their fate as the village was home to hundreds of low income earners.
All efforts to speak with the chief proved abortive as he has still not recovered from the shock of losing his house to Wike’s bulldozers.
The taskforce, comprises of officials of the FCT Development Control Department, the DRTS, the police, NSCDC, the AEPB, among others have been demolition illegal structure, some, the authorities say are being used by criminal elements around.
