Sokoto residents protest over estate demolition

Dozens of occupants of Yauri Plats Housing Estate in Sokoto State, on Tuesday, staged a peaceful protest over what they described as unlawful eviction by the state government.

The protesters, who stormed the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists carrying placards with different inscriptions, alleged that their eviction from the houses they had been occupying for over 40 years was unjustifiable.

Daily Trust learnt that at least 180 rooms, each accommodating at least six people, were marked for demolition at the Yauri Plats Housing Estate by the Sokoto State Government.

The occupants of the affected houses among them women and children are sleeping in an open space within the vicinity of the housing estate since their forceful eviction last week.

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They alleged that the Sokoto State Government neither paid compensation nor provided them with alternative shelter before their eviction.

Talatu Yusuf, one of the occupants, who was born and brought up at the estate, told Daily Trust that her parents had been occupying a house in the estate since 1992.

“We were evicted last week and currently, we don’t have a place to call home. We have been sleeping in an open space since last week,” she lamented.

Another occupant, Malama Aisha Bala, said she had been at the estate for 21 years, adding that they were forced to sleep on the streets following their eviction.

When contacted, the State Commissioner of Housing, Barrister Nasir Aliyu Dantsoho, confirmed the eviction of the affected residents but said everything was done according to the provisions of the laws.

Dantsoho said the affected residents were given one year’s notice to vacate the houses in question and after the notice elapsed, another one was given to them but they refused to comply.