Nigeria Content Online

About 82 civil
servants evacuated from the quarters of Yola Motel, by a rent tribunal
sitting in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, fortnight ago have appealed
to the state government to come to their aid.

The displaced people
who, together with their dependants are close to 600, have up till the
end of the month to pack out of the government owned property, where
they have been taking temporary residency since 2001.

The affected civil
servants were dragged by the state justice ministry before the rent
tribunal after defying a government order to vacate the property. The
spokesman for the group, Garba Tarfa said they decided to take up
residency on the property because “they do not have the money to find
themselves another accommodation, we want the government to come to our
aid as we have nowhere to go,” he said.

Mr Tarfa noted that
there is no way the residents could find alternative accommodation
before the 21 days ultimatum given to them to vacate the premises of the
Motel grounds. “The time given us is around the corner and we have no
where to go, we want the government to come to our aid by fulfilling its
promise to help us with finance for relocation,” he pleaded.

The people had
appealed to the chairman of the rent tribunal that they were forced to
seek refuge at the Yola motel because of their poor economic condition
and that the majority of those staying at the premises could not keep
up with the high rent being charged by landlords in the state capital.
They also affirmed that they obtained tenancy approval from the state
ministry of information, culture and tourism, the government agency of
the motel, in 2001 as a way out of the housing challenge by most of
them.

The ordeal

Mr Tarfa said the
ordeal started last December when they received a letter from the
government asking them to quit the property. Confronted by the quit
notice, the tenants said they met and agreed to appeal to the
government, and therefore wrote a letter titled “appeal for respite”
dated the 11th of January, 2011.

“Not wanting to
leave anything to chance, we wrote an SOS-(Save Our Soul) to the Adamawa
state chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress to intervene in the
matter. The labour body consequently conveyed our plight to the state
governor, Murtala Nyako,” Mr Tarfa said.

The state government subsequently promised to allocate land and some
token amount of money to enable all the civil servants relocate but
according to Mr Tarfa “the government is yet to fulfill that promise”
nd “we plead with the government to do so” he concluded.