Residents of Idu Ungwa Sama community in Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, are battling poor toilet facilities and unhygienic living conditions, which they say expose them and their households to frequent illnesses.
In one of the cramped compounds in the community, four rooms share a toilet that has become little more than an open pit, with residents complaining that the facility is inadequate and poses a health risk to their families.
Victoria Friday, one of the tenants, pointed to the uncovered pit toilet, which she said was used by her, her husband and their three children as well as other co-tenants.
“This is the toilet we use — me, my husband and our three children,” she said, adding that she had complained to the landlord several times without any improvement.
A few metres away, Elizabeth Manle, another tenant who lives in a single room with her husband and four children, lamented the deplorable condition of the toilet and bathing area shared by the residents.
“Look at where we bathe and ease ourselves. Our children are always sick. We need our landlord to help us keep this place neat,” she said.
Appealing to the government to intervene, Manle said residents were struggling to cope with the poor living conditions.
Memuna Abdulhakeem, who said she had endured the situation for four years, alleged that waste and urine from the neighbouring compound had continued to generate a foul smell that seeped into their homes.
“Even urine comes from there. Our health is at risk. We cannot even sit in our corridor. We have spoken to them and they said they would buy a pipe. It’s been four years now and nothing has happened,” she said.
Another resident, Mariam Muhammad, said the smell sometimes made it difficult for her to remain indoors.
“Sometimes I cannot breathe in my house. The smell enters the room. Today is even better,” she said.
Despite the conditions, most tenants in the compound pay about N100,000 annually in rent, while a few pay between N60,000 and N70,000.
Families of five and six people occupy single rooms and depend on the same inadequate toilet facility, raising concerns about overcrowding and access to basic sanitation.
When contacted by Abuja Metro, a caretaker, Isyaku Sarki Musa, acknowledged the problem with the toilet, explaining that it had become full.
Musa, who is the landlord’s younger brother and the district head of Sakada Idu, said he had made arrangements for workers to empty the toilet and cover it, but they abandoned the job.
“I personally made arrangements for people to empty and cover it. Unfortunately, those workers ran away. I even asked the residents to arrest one of them,” he said.
According to him, he subsequently told the tenants that they could engage someone else to complete the work and deduct the cost from their rent.
“Since then, they have not come back to me. I am still expecting them to bring the cost so it can be deducted from the rent,” he said.
On the foul smell and drainage problem in the neighbouring compound, Musa said the owner of the property died last year and a relative was now managing it on behalf of the deceased’s children.
He said discussions had been held over the problem but it had yet to be fully resolved.
The caretaker also maintained that prospective tenants were informed about the shared toilet before renting rooms in the compound.
