Several months after peace returned to CRD in Lugbe, Abuja, crisis again broke out on Thursday as agents of River Park Estate invaded the community with thugs to take over underdeveloped plots in the area.
For several weeks, Paul Odili, who is the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Paulo Homes Limited, owners of River Park Estate, made fresh incursions into the area with the target to take over all undeveloped plots in and around the community bordering the To over Park Estate.
Although there is a pending litigation in court by the community against Paulo Homes Limited and Houses for Africa Limited over the ownership of the lands in the area, the renewed incursions by Mr Odili is also in violation of a subsisting directive by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Nwike, suspending further development of lands in the area till further notice.
In the last three months, Mr Odili’s agents have been carrying out some clandestine activities in the community including surveys and mapping of areas he claims to, despite refusing to disclose the relevant documents from the FCDA and other approving authorities.
Recently, Mr approached the community to extract a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for peaceful coexistence in the disputed area.
When the community rejected the move, opting to continue the pursuit of their rights in court, Mr Odili abandoned the idea and proceeded to invade the community to push through his agenda.
On Thursday, about ten armed policemen invade the community claiming to be from the Force Police Headquarters, Abuja, on the directive to maintain law and order.
But curiously the policemen arrived in the company of several thugs wielding machetes, clubs and other harmful objects, along with masons and other casual labourers mobilised to excavate the ground for the construction of the fence around the targeted undeveloped plots in the community.
The Chairman of the CRD Residents Association, Stanley Nwaokike, told reporters in the community on Friday that when residents observed the unusual presence of policemen with red berets accompanied by thugs, they confronted them.
Mr Nwaokike said what the police said was they were directed by the owners of River Park to come and ensure peace and order for the workers handling the construction of the fence around the community.
“If not for the maturity of residents of the community, the situation could have degenerated into a full crisis,” Mr Nwaokike said.
“I don’t know what Mr Paul Odili wants from our community. We have reported his fresh incursions to the community to the police station in Lugbe. Before now, the community sent a petition to the Minister of the FCT and the Director of Development Control in the FCDA to notify them of the illegal activities of Mr Odili and his agents. So far, no response has come from any of them.
“We are using this opportunity to again call on the Minister, the FCDA and the National Assembly to intervene and call Mr Odili and River Park to order to avoid the matter escalating into a full crisis. We can no more tolerate this illegal invasion of our community by Mr Odili,” the Chairman said.
Another community resident, Azuka Okonkwo, expressed shock at the disruption of the peace of residents of the community, saying with latest development demands the immediate intervention by the FCT authorities.
“Another invasion of our community by hoodlums sponsored by the owners of River Park Estate is agonizing to our families, who have known peace for several years because Mr Odili.
“The FCT Minister and other relevant authorities, including the police, should do something urgently to stop the situation from degenerating into a major crisis,” he said.
Another resident, Michael Aitanu, who witnessed when the police arrived in the community on Thursday, said he could not understand why uniformed policemen should be allowed to wade into land issues and take sides.
Mr Aitanu said with the recent pronouncement by the Ministerial Committee on the River Park crisis and the directive by the FCT Minister halting further development of lands in River Park and the disputed areas in the community, it was surprising that Mr Odili is acting as if he is above the law.
Meanwhile, following the report by the community about the invasion, some policemen were sent to the community to bring the situation under control.
However, before the arrival of the police, the thugs who were mobilised to secure the labourers handling the construction of the fence for River Park ran away.
Although four of them were arrested and taken into detention at the Lugbe Police Station, the others regrouped with the workers after the police left the community.
