By Vera Wisdom-Bassey
It was a big relief as the general officer commanding, 81 Division, Victoria Island, Lagos, Major General Lawrence Fejokwu, in charge of Lagos and Ogun states, constituted a six-man committee to resolve land disputes between military personnel and members of their host communities recently.
The committee was commissioned to investigate land disputes between serving and retired army officers and civilians in both states, which have lingered for some time. As gathered, the crises have sometimes escalated to violent confrontations between the soldiers and their host communities.
The GOC hoped that the approach would, once and for all, solve the issues between all the parties involved.
The six officers given the responsibility were Brig-Gen. Nasiru Nagidada, chairman; Captain Nurudeen Maigari, secretary, Col. Afam Chukwuma, Maj. Abdulazeez Jimoh, Lt. Yusuf Matthew and Lt. Aliyu Alakan, members.
Speaking at the event, Fejokwu charged the committee to establish an amicable mechanism in addressing the task set before them. He stated that the division had been receiving a series of complaints regarding disputes between the servicemen and members of their host communities.
The GOC said soldiers also complained that communities revoked titles to land bought by them, which appreciated over time, and re-allocated to them other plots, which were not of equal value.
“This problem has persisted, and the Chief of Army Staff has charged that, whenever they identify any of such problem in that area, they must continue to interrogate and proffer solution. The idea behind this committee is that anybody with land complaint within 81 Division area must have to go through the committee to solve the case.
“They will tender their papers to the committee and, if there is a case, the committee will go as a representative of the division to resolve such a land dispute in an amicable manner,” he said.
Fejokwu said the approach would help in stopping communities from revoking land that had been sold to military personnel and also stop soldiers from taking the law into their hands. He urged them to look at the veracity of the land claims and quickly resolve all the issues.
“Individuals should not be found in using the personnel to resolve disputes over land that they bought rightly or wrongly, but to complain to the committee for appropriate intervention.
“We have been inundated with various complaints from both our personnel and communities. It is either the communities run to us and complain that soldiers are invading their lands, or our soldiers are complaining that they bought lands over time that have appreciated and the communities resold such lands and want to relocate them to other lands.
“If any soldier runs afoul of a land purchase agreement, the committee will not be biased to tell the truth. So, once you buy, try to begin to develop. If on the other hand we find out that the communities are trying to take advantage because the land has appreciated, we will also move as a division to tell them they cannot do that to our personnel.
“These agreements sometimes should be made flexible. For instance, when will a soldier who may be in theatre of operation for two or more years have time to come and develop a property he bought within a year? We hope this approach will solve all the problems identified,” Fejokwu said.