A woman reportedly died while other residents of Gbagyi Villa community in Kaduna sustained varying degrees of injuries during a protest.
The residents were protesting when agents of Kaduna State Government embarked on the demolition of Gbaygi Villa residential complex on the outskirts of Kaduna metropolis.
According to a source , “youth groups and other inhabitants of the area, and from neighborhood came out to protest against the demolition of houses and other structures, when they sited bulldozers and armed security men who were deployed for the exercise.”
“The uniform men started shooting to scare the resilient youths who were chanting songs and slogans, away. On hearing the news of the demolition and the gunshots, a woman simply identified as Sarah collapsed as her blood pressure was believed to have shot up, “
“She was rushed to the hospital for medical attention, but unfortunately she couldn’t make it and she died before getting to the hospital.”
“The youths that massively came out to defend the Gbaygi villa from demolition vowed to take their lives into their hands to defend the community and defend the court judgment said to have been earlier secured by the residents of the community against the demolition exercise.”
Lukas Daniel, a resident, said that “if the authority that is supposed to defend the judgment is now rising against the community in total disobedience to the judgment, we wonder the kind of society we are living, and the legacy Government is bequeathing.”
” Though some houses had been demolished while the youths were resisting, but eventually the resilient youths prevailed and KASUPDA with their security men retreated with a promise to return on a surprise attack, perhaps at night.”
It could be recalled that in an official letter by the Director-General of Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KASUPDA), Ismail Umaru-Dikko, dated April 20, 2023, the agency demanded the urgent release of N29,253,500 for the demolition exercise.
The memo by KASUPDA entitled ‘Request For Clearance To Carry out Pending Demolition Exercise’, listed the properties of IMN, UBE schools, Damau Among the reasons given by the authority for embarking on the demolition were the ban placed on the Islamic group, encroachment on schools’ landed properties, non-compliance on special regularization program, dilapidated structural failure, urban renewal and upgrade, encroachments and illegal subdivision.