How youths invaded palace to evict late Sarkin Kwali Alhaji Adamu Katsina’s family

The lingering chieftaincy tussle in Kwali town, Kwali Area Council of the FCT, took different dimensions when some youths believed to be loyal to the chairman of Kwali Area Council, Danladi Chiya, recently invaded the palace of the late Sarkin Kwali, HRH Alhaji Adamu Katsina, in an attempt to evict the deceased monarch’s family from the palace.

One of the sons of the late Sarkin Kwali and spokesman of the family, Prince Yarima Hudu Adamu, while narrating the story to our reporter, said the incident happened on Tuesday, July, 9, 2024 at about 6:30am after he had left the palace and was on his way to work.

Yarima Adamu said he was on his way to attend a meeting in the office when he received a call from some people residing within the palace that some youths, numbering over 70, and wielding cutlasses, hoes, rakes and sticks, invaded the palace and started cutting down some trees and grasses inside the premises of the palace.

Adamu said shortly after the first phone call, another call came again through his elder brother, Prince Yarima Abubakar Sadiq, who informed him about the invasion of the palace by some youths.

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He said the youths broke into all the rooms in the palace, after destroying the locks, ransacked the rooms, and thereafter carted away some valuable items left behind by their late father, Alhaji Adamu Katsina.

“While all these were going on, my elder brother decided not to go near them as he stayed somewhere watching the youths,” Yarima Hudu Adamu said.

He said the youths later proceeded to the grave where the late Sarkin Kwali Alhaji Adamu Katsina was buried. They pulled down the wall barricading the grave site in an attempt to exhume their late father’s corpse.

According to him, the youths demanded that the family of the late Adamu Katsina should vacate the palace to pave the way for the newly appointed Etsu of Kwali, Luka Nizasan, to occupy the palace.

Yarima Adamu said the late Sarkin Kwali, Alhaji Adamu Katsina’s palace, does not belong to the government; explaining that their late father inherited the palace from his father (their grandfather). That was when their father, late Adamu Katsina, was posted to Kwali as district head in 1963 by the then Emir of Abuja (now Suleja), Alhaji Suleiman Barau.

“So it is funny when the youths came to threaten us that we the children of late Alhaji Adamu Katsina should vacate the palace so that the new Etsu of Kwali would come and take it over from us. This palace does not belong to the government,” Yarima Adamu said.

He further stated, “In fact, the palace was built with mud blocks until our cousin, Architect Muhammad Adamu Abuja, explored his relationship with his friend and former Minister of the FCT, General Muhammad Gado Nasko (rtd), and got the latter to rebuild the palace with red bricks in 1989,” he recalled.

Soon after the invasion of the palace by the youths, Yarima Adamu said he wrote to inform relevant authorities, including the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Kwali, the Ona of Abaji, Alhaji Adamu Baba Yunusa, the FCT director of the State Security Service, and the FCT administration.

“After I approached the DPO of Kwali and told him about the invasion of our late father’s palace, we waited patiently to see him take necessary action to protect us and the palace. The only response that later came from the DPO was that he was under serious pressure, which prompted him to thereafter refer the matter to the police Area Command in Gwagwalada,” he explained.

Adamu lamented the inaction of police authorities in taking concrete measures to avert a repeat of the attack on the palace by the youths, whose target was to evict the late Sarkin Kwali, Alhaji Adamu Katsina’s family from the palace.

“Aside of that, the youths also planted some fetish things at the back of the premises of the palace. As believers in Allah’s omnipotence, this did not bother us much because we strongly believe that Allah protects His righteous servants against all harms,” he said.

The late monarch’s son who conducted our reporter round the rooms inside the palace, also displayed some boxes, from which he said some valuables such as traditional and royal attires left behind by their late father were allegedly stolen by the youths.

“As you can see, the boxes that were filled with assorted royal insignia and regalia including customised shoes, gold-plated items, etc, were emptied by the youths after destroying the boxes,” he said.

According to Adamu, but for the combined efforts of himself and his siblings who vigorously persuaded residents of Kwali community, as well as others who sympathised with them not to engage in any reprisal actions against the youths that invaded the palace, the situation could have degenerated into chaos and disorder; a threat to the existing peace in the community.

Adamu, however, pointed accusing fingers at the chairman of the area council, Danladi Chiya, for allegedly being behind the youths that invaded their late father’s palace.

He also said that the invading youths left the scene after they finished their attack on the palace. He alleged that the area council chairman had been accusing the late Sarkin Kwali’s family of harbouring scavengers in the palace.

“And thank God you have gone round the palace and seen the rooms inside the palace. I’m sure you didn’t see any scavenger or their belongings in any of the rooms,” he said.

The prince said what the late Sarkin Kwali Alhaji Adamu Katsina’s family have been demanding for the government to appoint a new Sarkin Kwali to succeed their father as it obtains in Bwari Area Council of the FCT where there exist side-by-side and without any friction, the Sarkin Bwari and Etsu of Bwari.

“The call we have been making since the death of our father, Alhaji Adamu Katsina 15 years ago, is that the government should be fair in the matter by appointing one of us to succeed our late father as Sarkin Kwali, and to also appoint Etsu of Kwali for the Gbagyi. This is what the FCT administration did in the Bwari Area Council. This has remained our call,” he said.

Efforts by our reporter to get reactions from the Kwali Area Council Chairman, Danladi Chiya, over the matter, were not successful as he did not pick up several calls put across to him.

Also, a text message sent to his phone was not replied to up till the time of filing this report.

He was also said not to be on seat when our reporter visited the council’s secretariat.

Similarly, the DPO of Kwali Police Division refused comment on the issue and referred our reporter to the FCT police command.

When contacted yesterday, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Josephine Adeh, said she was in a meeting.

Several visits to the FCT Area Council Services Secretariat, the secretariat that over sees the affairs of the traditional rulers in the territory yielded no result as the Mandate Secretary was said not to be available on each of the visit.