SPECIAL REPORT: Pegi; Abuja Community Where Bad Road Fuels Murder, Kidnapping, Rape

SPECIAL REPORT: Pegi; Abuja Community Where Bad Road Fuels Murder, Kidnapping, Rape

By Zeenat Sambo

Ordinarily, a visit to communities within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) should evoke the feeling that one is in the capital of Nigeria, the Seat of Power. However, a recent trip by our reporter to Pegi, a community situated in Kuje Area Council of Abuja was a nightmare.

The vehicle boarded by our reporter navigated through huge potholes and craters on the four to five kilometer stretch of road that leads to the community. Though there is a footpath that navigates to Apo roundabout, with which one can access Pegi, but it appears deserted, and unsafe for use either in daytime or at night.

Upon arriving at the community, our reporter sighted some people going about their daily rituals. They however, looked ‘agitated’ by the strange faces of our reporter and two PRNigeria cameramen, who accompanied her on the reporting expedition.

El-Rufai’s 1,000 Resettlement Layout

In 2006, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the then Minister of FCT, commissioned 1,000 housing units known as Pegi resettlement layout in Kuje (now known as the Pegi community). It was originally intended to be a low-cost housing scheme for civil servants, with promises of massive infrastructural development.

However, the FCT administration’s failure to deliver the housing project affected the community’s infrastructural growth, while fueling insecurity in the area. It also deteriorated Pegi’s healthcare services, roads, and resulted in the abandonment of the El-Rufai urban design.

The massive demolition of unapproved structures within the FCT between 2003 and 2007, when El-Rufai was the FCT minister, had forced many to relocate from the municipality to different areas on the outskirts of Abuja, including Pegi.

The Pegi resettlement layout measures about 85,000 square meters, and was touted as the largest resettlement in the country. It was formally conceived as a model community for people displaced from the Abuja city centre about 17 years ago, after the demolition of unapproved structures defacing the master plan of the capital city.

Situated south of Kuje, Pegi has a population of about 16,000 people made up of mostly farmers, civil servants, retirees and artisans.

It could be recalled that, in February 2006, Pegi had hosted the “Abuja at 30” celebration. Many of those who relocated to Kuje had hoped the event would hasten development in the area.

Malam Abdullahi Rabiu, a resident said, “I was one of the first people that was relocated to this community. At the time, only my house stood amid bushes and the vast land aside the housing units at the entrance. We lived detached from the rest of the FCT populace, but we had believed that the government would not abandon us. But that hope was dashed after almost 20 years and no improvement”.

It is apt to assert that the Pegi settlement, which was supposed to be a haven for civil servants has now turned into a nightmare as a result of increased crime rate. Residents believe that the neglect of their community has escalated security challenges such as kidnapping, rape, theft and other criminal activities, while causing the dilapidation of the only access road into Pegi.

A Community’s Bad Road

The Pegi Community Development Association, PECDA, decried the appalling state of their community road, saying it is endangering lives and affecting the economic activities of residents.

Its Chairman, Mr. Taiwo Aderibigbe, in an interview with PRNigeria, revealed that the major cause of all the challenges faced by Pegi residents is the community’s bad road.

“Due to its dilapidated condition, gunmen, rapists and kidnappers have often attacked residents commuting on the road. Pegi could have been the pride of FCT, but it is a ghost of itself now,” he said.

A resident of the community, Alhaji Rilwan, said the deep gullies on the road often damage their vehicles, create hazards for drivers, and expose them to numerous attacks.

“The bad shape of the road causes us to slow down while plying the road. But our precautionary strategy is a blessing for hoodlums, who use the opportunity to strike. The hoodlums often hide inside the bush and jump out to attack anytime they notice a car slowing down. Most of us have been kidnapped and some even killed. We are frightened to go out before 6am and after 7pm.

“The bad road is affecting our economy. We have banana plantations and charcoal heaps, which vans often pick up to deliver to other places. But they have not been able to boost their businesses due to the difficulty encountered by road users. The deplorable condition of the access road to Pegi has deterred other people from accessing our community.

During the rainy season, most of the residents pack their cars and use available bikes to pass through the bush path to Kuje town before heading into the city,” Rilwan said.

A retiree, Mr. Femi Durogbesan, also highlighted how the terrible nature of the Pegi community road is affecting residents of the community.

He said, “One of the challenges we have is bad road. We are also lagging behind in business. We have to buy everything from Kuje because people are afraid to set up a business here. As a retiree, I wish to buy all my needs within my reach but this road is a problem”.

At the Mercy of Rapists

Mrs. Victoria Kwanta, who is the Welfare officer of PECDA, said that one of the spiral effects of Pegi’s bad community road is the rising incident of rape cases.

“On this our bad community road, women are raped frequently. I know a lady who suffered severe injuries, after she was sexually molested while walking along the road. It is scary to note that women are now raped daily on the road, especially on market days,” she said.

To draw the attention of relevant authorities to the plight of Pegi women, Kwanta said members of their community, on multiple occasions, staged peaceful demonstrations, over the terrible condition of the road leading to Pegi.

“We have also pleaded and appealed to the Federal Government to fix our road, and provide it with streetlight to boost security. Unfortunately, nothing has been done,” she added.

Speaking on the communal effort to fix the problems bedeviling their community, Mr. Aderibigbe said they were able to raise funds by taxing residents of Pegi, which they used in rehabilitating some bad portions of the road, and for ‘appreciating’ the efforts of vigilantes who police the community.

“But before then, we wrote several letters to the FCTA management, seeking their intervention. We also made efforts to see the immediate-past Minister of the FCT, Mohammed Musa Bello. But we got no positive response, at all. There was a time we even staged a peaceful protest.

“The situation however, changed after we turned our community association into a kind of pressure group. With that move, we were able to agitate for the socio-economic growth of Pegi. But as civil servants, there was little we could do,” he said.

Everything, But a Police Station

Concerning the security challenges affecting the dense Kuje community, PRNigeria gathered that the men and officers of the Pegi Police Station have done little, over the years, to rid the community of hoodlums and other criminal elements.

PRNigeria also learnt that the station is battling with inadequate personnel, who are also poorly equipped with sophisticated firearms. According to many residents of the community, the police personnel have contributed to worsening security threats in Pegi, primarily by failing to respond to distress calls and emergencies swiftly.

When PRNigeria visited the Kuje settlement, the road leading to the police station was in a deplorable condition that two vehicles or motorcycles, could not pass side by side. The station was empty and only few personnel were seen manning its premises.

N50m Ransom for 40 Kidnapped Victims

Like rapists, kidnappers also derive joy in attacking residents of Pegi. PRNigeria gathered that over 40 persons were kidnapped in the area within four years, while about N50 million was said to have been paid as ransom to kidnappers between 2018 and now.

Mr. Moshood Atanda, a civil servant resident in Pegi experienced a kidnapping attack, some months ago. He told PRNigeria how the incident occurred.

“I was driving back from work one fateful evening, sometime last year. When I got to a bush path a few metres to Pegi, a sudden loud explosion grounded my car.

“The first blast went off and then the second one forced my car to stop. For a moment, I did not know what had happened but I saw some gunmen approaching, and I thought they were armed robbers. So I packed my phones and the money on me to give to them, but they slapped and forced me out of my car.

“The other vehicles behind me were also forced to stop. As the operation went on, the Police Division heard of the attack and dispatched some policemen to repel the kidnappers.

“But the kidnappers were well armed and they exchanged fire with the police. One of the bullets hit me and left me bleeding. The other passengers were abducted. Due to bleeding, I felt weak and laid down on the floor in the bush path.

“After overpowering the police, the kidnappers made away with other victims and approached me to pick me up as well, but they thought I was dead and left me. It was after hours the abductors left that some of my fellow Pegi community members came to my rescue me”.

It is not only on the road leading to Pegi that criminals lay ambushes for their potential hostages, they also invade residents’ houses to capture innocent people for ransom.

“Even our houses are not safe. The kidnappers often strike in the dead of the night, and take away people forcefully. But thank God, only one kidnapping attack has happened in our community this year,” said Lucy Egbe (not real name).

Egbe and her sister were also abducted in their house last year. The 24 year-old, who is still battling with psychological trauma as a result of the frightening experience, said, “We were abducted in the midnight, and taken to an unknown location where we saw a lot of other kidnapped people. Some were raped, beaten and killed if they refused to cooperate. Ransoms were paid daily, and we watched people leave and the rest of us remained in captivity.

“We were there for more than two weeks before my parents, family and church members were able to raise our ransom. In Pegi, we have a police unit surrounded by a Navy Barrack, but what still baffles me is that the kidnappers’ den, at that time, was still in our Pegi community. And the ransom for my release was dropped by my parents in a deserted location in Pegi.

“All I can tell you is that a lot of millions were paid to free us. After our release, we had to move out of the community to avoid further attacks”.

Also, Mr. Matthew Attah, the younger brother to one late Attah Aku, a Chief Superintendent (CSP) of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), who died during a kidnapping attack in Pegi, around October 2019, also narrated how the poor security situation in Pegi has worsened since his brother’s death.

CSP Aku was one of the victims of the kidnapping incidents in Pegi that did not survive, as a result of complications from the gunshot wound he sustained.

Attah said, “I lost my brother four years ago, on his way back from the office. He closed from work around 8pm in the evening on a fateful day in October 2019. Our family members in town had asked him to spend his night with them, because it was late. But he assured them that there was no problem and left in his black hilux vehicle.

“On his way to Pegi, the kidnappers who were already carrying out an operation on the Pegi bush path thought he was a police officer, and opened fire on his vehicle. The bullet hit him fatally. No one came to his aid because the community members were scared to engage the kidnappers at that period of the night. So they had to wait till the next morning.

“By the time he was rushed to a hospital in the town the following morning, it was already late. I believed he could have survived if there was a hospital here in Pegi. There is a big land here for the government to build a hospital, and help us equip it.

“He left behind two children and a wife, and it has not been easy at all. For the sake of my brother, I am pleading with the government to fix our community’s bad road, so that others will not suffer the fate of my late elder brother. I want the current FCT Minister to come to our aid at Pegi”.

FCDA Authorities React

Our PRNigeria reporter was at the Secretariat of the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, to get the reaction of the management on the actions taken so far to address the problems of bad road and insecurity at Pegi.

However, a top FCDA official who asked not to be named, assured that the new FCT Minister, Bar. Nyesom Wike, is passionate about tackling the myriad of challenges across the rural communities in the nation’s capital.

On his part, Austine Elemue, the Special Assistant, SA, on Media and Publicity to the FCT Minister of State, said, “We are aware of the issues faced by the residents of Pegi Community. They have complained several times and we have taken note of their complaints.

“This new administration is working hard to alleviate their sufferings. Currently, the FCT Minister of State, Hajia Mariya Mahmoud, has been briefed and she is planning to visit all the rural communities in Abuja, with a view to proffering solutions to their problems.

“When the FCT Minister, Bar. Nyesom Wike, said he will construct a 30km road at the rural areas in Abuja, just know that he will do so because he is a man of his words. The Kuje-Pegi road is part of it, and this time around, the contact will be appropriately awarded.”