MANY commuters were on Wednesday, August 21, stranded for hours as residents of Iddo Sarki took to the Airport-Giri Expressway to protest against the Nigerian Navy, which they accused of encroaching on their land and destroying valuable farm produce.
The residents claimed that Navy personnel forcefully occupied their farmlands despite ‘directives’ from the National Assembly and the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, against such an act.
The ICIR reports that the Iddo community is one of the closest communities to the University of Abuja. It accommodates a large number of the university’s students.
The demonstrators also noted that the officers arrived with heavy machinery, cleared vast areas of their farmland, and threatened to shoot at any farmer who moved close to them.
According to the protesters, consisting of farmers and other residents, they rely on the crops being destroyed for their survival and have now seen most of the farms destroyed by the military.
Just as they alleged, The ICIR observed no fewer than five military vehicles and several heavily armed officers moving in and out of the community.
Protesters were seen carrying placards with different inscriptions like “Stop Destroying Our Lands,” “We Need Justice,” and “We Are Peace Lovers,” demanding that the government intervene to stop the Navy.
The ICIR reports that the community and the Nigerian Navy have been at loggerheads over land ownership, with the military authorities ordering the community residents to vacate the area to enable them to pull down hundreds of houses built on part of the land.
In January 2024, the military served a notice on the residents and mounted no fewer than two signposts, claiming the land belonged to it.
‘This is our land’
Addressing the Abuja Municipal Area Council chairman, Christopher Maikalangu, the police and the media, the community representative, Jethro Iliya, said that the military personnel were found clearing their crops using heavy machinery in the early hours of Wednesday, August 21.
“The Navy was found on our farmland clearing our crops that we have suffered to cultivate. Our crops that our fathers, our mothers, brothers and uncles, have spent months in cultivating, only for them, the Nigerian Navy this morning, to just go and start removing them with trucks and caterpillars, bulldozing our crops,” Iliya added.
He noted that despite the National Assembly and the FCT minister’s ‘directive’ to the Navy to hold on with its activities in the past, the Navy had continued to encroach on the community’s lands.
‘We are not illegal occupants of this land. This is our land, our ancestors gave it to us,” he stated, adding that there were due processes to be followed if the Navy wanted to acquire the land.
“Be it as it may, anybody who lives in the FCT knows the processes of acquiring a property in any part of this country. There are procedures laid on the ground, when you need land.
“But unfortunately the Nigerian Navy and other agencies have refused to follow these processes. Instead, when our fathers and our mothers, uncles and brothers approached their farmlands, the Navy threatened to shoot them with their guns,” he added.
Demands made
The protesters demanded that the Navy immediately vacate their lands and compensate them for the crops destroyed.
The community vowed to continue its protest, insisting that it would not clear the roads or end the demonstration until its demands are met.
“If they want us to clear this road, we want them to leave our land that they are clearing currently. We have suffered to cultivate these crops, and we want them to leave that place immediately.
“Our second demand is that the crops they have destroyed must be paid for because our efforts cannot go in vain because we are not illegal occupants of this land. This is our land, our ancestors gave it to us,” Iliya, added.
“It’s Unfortunate” AMAC Chairman appeals for calm
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council, under whose council the community falls, expressed deep concern over the Navy’s operations in the community.
“I understand your pains,” he told the demonstrators. “What’s happening here today is very unfortunate. It’s unfortunate because I am very much aware that this matter is before the National Assembly and the National Assembly has put a stop to any exercise carried out by the military.”
Maikalangu further noted that his office and the community had previously engaged with the FCT Minister, whom he said had instructed the military to stop its activities pending further deliberations.
While appealing for peace, the council chairman urged the military to remove its machinery and allow the government to address the issue.
“On that reason, I am here to say that please, the military, for peace to reign, remove your machines in this community for now, let the government itself handle this matter,” he said.
He also proposed that the military and the youths follow him to the commissioner of police’s office to resolve the matter amicably, stressing that peaceful dialogue was essential to avoid loss of life.
He further assured the residents that actions were being taken to protect their crops and livelihoods.
“If you’re interested in their land, come and give them what they want, they have reported two items, you have to pay them an economic fee and you have to resettle them amicably. Follow the due process to resettle our people, not by removing their crops. We are not in support of this movement,” the chairman added.
On his part, the deputy commissioner of police (operations), Ishiaku Ishiaku, asked the community to send its representatives to the CP’s office, adding the chairman and the military would be involved in the settlement.
He further appealed to the residents to allow vehicular movement. The community accepted his pleas and cleared the highway for vehicles to move.
Double tragedy for many residents
The ICIR reports that the community is facing a third demolition in nearly ten years.
The community, having hundreds of houses, saw a demolition in 2011 and another in 2022 by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
Its surrounding area from the Airport Junction to Giri community has been taken over by the military. The Air Force owns the land before it, from the Airport axis, while the Nigeria Army has already built its headquarters on the vast land after it, opposite the university and Giri community, towards Anagada Village along Zuba Road.
The planned demolition of the Iddo community followed a similar exercise by the Air Force on Nuwalege community, behind Air Force Base, along Airport Road in January.
Nuwalege was pulled down without prior notice by the Air Force, as only a section of the community was marked three weeks before the exercise.
The Air Force promptly fenced the community’s land with its Base.
Many of the community’s residents moved to Iddo town to resettle, and they are now faced with another demolition threat.
The ICIR, however, learnt that Nigerians who claimed to be rightful owners of the Nuwalege land are challenging the Air Force in court, forcing the military to leave the land undeveloped since then.
This organisation further reports that the destruction of farmlands in Iddo by the Navy is coming when most Nigerians are facing acute hunger and food inflation is at its highest rate since 1996.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M