Chief of Army Staff, Lt- General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has disclosed that the present location of the defence headquarters in the Gariki area of the Federal Capital territory (FCT) Abuja will soon be moved to its permanent site.
Describing the present location of the defence headquarters, which comprises the army, navy and air force as mere temporary site, Buratai said the military is already making plans to relocate the service to its permanent site very soon when it has annexed all the lands belonging to the three services.
The Army chief made this disclosure yesterday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on the FCT in company of leadership of the army authorities to explain the alleged army’s forceful takeover of 238 hectares of land in Maitama Extension.
This is as the Minister of the FCT, Mohammed Bello, has blamed a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Abuja), Senator Adamu Aliero for the current face-off between the Nigerian Army and civilians over ownership of the 238 hectares of land.
Bello made this allegation while explaining to the senators, the current efforts being made by FCT and the Army to resolve the problem amicably.
The minister said, the 238 hectares of land was originally allocated to the Nigerian Army in 1996, but some time in 2009, when Senator Adamu Aliero was the FCT Minister, about 600 plots were re-allocated to some privileged civilians and retired military officers without any legal revocation of allocation made in 1996 when retired Lt –General Jeremiah Useni, was the minister.
He said: “I want to just mention that the area in contention was actually area earmarked for the Nigerian Army under the Guards Brigade way back in 1996. But sometime in 2009 a portion and the entire area in contention is about 246 hectares or thereabout.
“Sometime in 2009, plot allocations were made there and commitments were undertaken by the FCTA in terms of infrastructure. Allocated plots in that area from our records numbered about 600 plots out of which Certificate of Occupancy (C-of- O) have been issued to about 200 with payments of about N5.6 billion received aside commitment of about N9 billion already made in respect of providing infrastructure in the area out of estimated N23billion”.
He appealed to the committee to give the FCT authority and the Army more time to resolve the problem, saying “at the end of the day, we would be able to reach a solution to meet the needs of the military and of course, ensure also those that were allocated plots in that area in terms of financial commitments, do not lose their commitments”.
He added that as a result of the problem, the FCT administration was already identifying all available military lands within the territory towards avoiding similar encroachment aided from within.
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