Lagos community battles Army over land, soldiers attack residents

Residents of Abomiti community, in the Lekki area of Lagos State, have asked the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya, to come to their rescue after some soldiers invaded the community and attacked some residents.

They claimed that the military men were working with suspected land grabbers to take over a large expanse of land allocated to them by the state government.

Abomiti is one of the communities resettled by the Lagos State Government after the community land was taken over by the government for the Lekki Free Trade Zone in the Ibeju-Lekki LGA of the state.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the community was allocated a stretch of land measuring 239 hectares at Ilamija in 2019.

In order to validate their claim to the land, the community reportedly got a certificate of occupancy no: 96/96/2021F in 2021.

The community, under the aegis of the Abomiti Zone Community Development Association, in a statement on Friday, said land grabbers connived with some members of the Nigerian Army to take over the land.

The statement was signed by the group’s Chairman, Olayinka Ayodele, and the Secretary, Taofeek  Adesoye.

It read, “We are duly accredited representatives of the Abomiti Resettlement Committee, otherwise known as the Abomiti Zone Community Development Association, comprising about 20 villages and about 70 cluster communities, whose vast ancestral land of about 2,777 hectares was acquired by the LASG for the public purpose of the Lekki Free Trade Zone pursuant to the Land Use Act, LFN 2004.

“Some disgruntled elements engaged notorious land grabbers in criminal connivance with some corrupt political appointees to encroach on about 30 hectares of the portion of the land belonging to Abomiti.

“They fraudulently lured a private company engaged in estate investments for commercial purposes for the Army into laying unfounded, wrongful and illegal claims to the said 30 hectares of land, which is part and parcel of the said size of land allocated to us by the LASG and upon which the said certificate of occupancy was granted.

“Officers and agents of the Nigerian Army from Epe, acting on the instructions of the private company, invaded our land on January 31, 2022, and destroyed all the signboards mounted on the land, assaulted some people on the land and chased them away.

“They further encroached on the land on February 3, 2022, and erected several signboards of different sizes on the land with the inscription of the Nigerian Army.

“These acts of brazen lawlessness are not only unconstitutional but tantamount to a grievous assault on the collective psyche of the Nigerian people; that an institution created for the protection of our territorial integrity will make itself an instrument of oppression of the same people!”

The group said the community complained to the military authorities in Epe after a peace meeting between their solicitors and the private company’s lawyer.

The community said a commanding officer at Epe and officials of the private company subsequently removed the military signboards from the land and sued for peace.

Another meeting was said to have been held in a bid to resolve the issues.

“But in a shameless and naked abuse of power, the company, backed up by two truckloads of officers and men of the Nigerian Army from Epe invaded and further trespassed on our land on February 19, 2022 and illegally re-erected the previously removed signboards with the inscription of the Nigerian Army under the baseless and malicious pretext that we were working on the land while parties were exploring settlement. Officers and men of the Nigerian Army have continued to harass, threaten and assault us on our land,” the statement added.

The community appealed to the Chief of Army Staff to intervene in the matter.

The spokesperson for the 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major Olaniyi Osoba, advised the community to write to the Commanding Officer, 81 Division, for a resolution of the matter.

He said, “We have had issues of this nature with many communities and this is not a big case that cannot be resolved. I would advise the leaders of the community to write to the GOC here at Kofo Abayomi Street, VI, Lagos.” (The PUNCH)