From Molly Kilete. Abuja
The Nigerian army had reacted to the allegation making the rounds that it forcefully took over a piece of land belonging to the cousin of former president Goidluck Jonathan.
The land said to have been allocated to Jonathan’s cousin, Azibaola Robert, who is also the owner of Kakarta Civil Engineering Limited, was sealed off by soldiers from the Guards Brigade, over security threat was gathered that the Kakarta Civil Engineering Limited site was allocated to Azibaola by the last administration.
The company which is providing engineering infrastructure for the Maitama Extension District in Abuja, is using the land as a construction site and office for the coordination of the provision of services for the owners of plots in the District.
The land located between the Guards Brigade cemetery and the Lungi barracks is causing security threats to the military because of the huge number of workers who troop in and out of the site.
But the army reacting to the allegation that it forcefully took the land said there was no iota of truth in the story.
It maintained that the belong to the army and described those operating on it as illegal occupant.
A top army source who would not want to be mentioned in print said the land measuring a total of 245.2 Hectares, was allocated to the Nigerian army, on March.15, 1991.
According to the top army officer “Our land starts from the cemetery to where you have the brigade headquarters.
“And a they all have Certificate of Occupancy, given in the name of the Nigerian army and guards brigade.
The source said “They are divided into 4 plots, 1, 2 and 3. And those papers are still with us.
Asked if the army had given the construction notice to vacate the premises before now, the source said that was not necessary especially since no one communicated to the army that the land had been allocated to somebody.
“actually the land belongs to the army and nobody has communicated to the army that that land has been given to anybody and we have all the documents of the land in our possession as I speak to you, that is the truth, so the issue of intimidating the owner of the construction company should not come up at all because the land belongs to the army and that is nothing but the truth.
When contacted, the acting director army Public relations Sani Usman, said “the long and short of it is that some people connived and coveted army land and we are so determined that whoever encroached on army land we must recover our land.
“And this is not the only one, if you look at Giri, on the Abuja airport road people have encroached our land and we are able to recover some and it is the same thing at Basawa, in Zaria and Lokoja, there are so many of them because some people connived and it was wrongly done.”
Because people were in power, they just connived without recourse to Abuja masterplan. But this land belongs to the army and of course it constitute a danger because of blasting that is going on there you may mistake it with issue that one day you just wake up to find insurgents inside your domain so you cannot afford to have such thing apart from the fact that it was illegally acquired”
It was not meant to antagonize anybody at all and whoever is encroaching on army land be rest assured we are determined to recover our land”. Usman said.