A lawmaker representing Akinyele Constituency 1 in the Oyo State House of Assembly, Ayotunde Fatokun, has called for the relocation of the shooting range being used by the 2 Division of the Nigerian Army, Ibadan.
The lawmaker told newsmen in Ibadan, yesterday that projectiles from shooting exercises by the army were endangering lives and damaging property around the range.
Fatokun said projectiles during shooting exercises often hit buildings in communities such as Omilabu, Dominion and Aroro-Makinde in his constituency.
The lawmaker said investigation had indicated that the projectiles damage walls and roofs of buildings in the communities as well as threaten lives. He claimed that an on-the-spot assessment to the communities proved that the residents were at risk of being hit by the projectiles.
“We saw a lot of buildings abandoned by their owners as a result of projectiles already inside their buildings and had caused damage to their property.
”Infact, I have some of the projectiles collected from the affected house owners to prove the fact that truthfully bullets entered their houses,” he said.
The army, it would be recalled, had dismissed the allegation of projectiles hitting buildings in the area, saying a distance of 2,000 metres exists between the ‘stop-butt’ of the range and the communities.
The Division’s Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Hassan Mohammed, on July 15 told newsmen that the effective range of the main weapon being used (Ak47 rifle) was 800 metres.