An estate development company, TPumpy Concept, has said a video circulating on social media was showing compensation to Fulani settlers on its land, not bandits.
Akintayo Adaralagbe, the Managing Director/CEO of the Abuja-based firm, at a press conference stated that construction was to begin on the land around Phase 24 Lugbe, Abuja, but had to pay 52 families who settled for over 30 years there.
“The video circulating on social media that a developer was trying to induce or empower Fulani to buy arms was inaccurate. We are an estate developer and acquire our property through the right allottee.”
He stated that occasionally, when a land is acquired in Abuja, farmers and settlers are found on the land.
“In our own case, we found the farmers there which are Gbagyis and settled them on the farm crops and produce on the land. We later discovered that there is also a Fulani settlement, where they rear their cow and have been residing for over three decades.”
“We can’t tell them just to go since we had the allocation to the land, we agreed to settle 200,000 per hut and we settled them so we are not inducing them.”
He added that the video of the disbursement of the cash was made as a form of evidence that the group was compensated to avoid accusation of displacing the settlers.
On his part, FCT Chairman of Fulani Dan Allah Development Association of Nigeria (GAFDAN), Abubakar Suleiman said he was invited by the Fulani settlers to negotiate on their behalf when they were to be evicted from the land.
“I spoke with the engineer on the land if I could speak with the owner of the land. He agreed and I spoke with the MD who came to meet us, he met the settlers with most of them over 70 years old, women and youth.”
He stated that a negotiation started on the spot on the amount to be paid as the settlers have nowhere to go having spent more than 30 years on the land.
“Anywhere they want to go, they can be attacked due to the hostility Fulani is facing now in the country. Gun-carrying Fulani herdsmen are not in Abuja and we have been working with security agencies to ensure that herders and farmers live in peace here.”
