On Saturday, residents of Abuja’s Kurudu Police Estate protested what they deemed to be the improper handling of the community’s plan, as well as the exposure of the estate to security threats and violent robberies.
With placards in hand, the homeowners had blocked the estate’s main entrance.
Oregbesan Olalekan, vice chairman of the Kurudu Police Estate Owners and Residents Association, claimed the group had sent up to 30 letters to the inspector general of police via the FCT commissioner of police, but to no avail.
According to him, the developer had failed to follow the master plan of the estate, as well as ensure security within the estate, noting that the estate had many porous entrances, and residents had been attacked and robbed many times.
We are in a very serious security threat situation in the country. That was really what led to the protest. Our lives are not safe. We have more than 10 porous places in this estate that somebody can follow through if you don’t want to follow the gate; in an estate, a police estate; one of the biggest porous places, it costs almost a million naira, and we blocked that place. It will shock you to hear that robberies have happened. That was the place that the robbers passed through because it is directly linked to the Kurudu Community”.
Olalekan said the residents’ demand was for a better-secured environment, as residents and citizens of Nigeria, and the Federal Capital Territory.
“We are not demanding anything personal. We just want to live peacefully and comfortably in a place that we have bought with our money and sweat. That’s all we are asking for as citizens of Nigeria, and the FCT. We are just asking; make our estate habitable, let everything be done according to the law that governs an estate, and we are okay.”
He further added that residents had, had to take turns to keep vigilance of the estate.