By Nuruddeen M. Abdallah & Ruby Leo



The Nigerian army has put up its land meant for barracks for sale to the public to build private homes and businesses, Daily Trust investigations have shown.

This is coming at a time the military is facing acute shortage of accommodation for its personnel.

About four years ago, this newspaper reported how the Army shared out to top military brass part of a land meant for barracks in the Asokoro district, Abuja.

Investigations have shown that the current land in question, Plot 2302, measuring about 248.19 hectares, is located behind Mogadishu Cantonment. Its land use is still “Public Institution (Military Formation).

Further findings revealed that the Federal Capital Territory allocated the land to ease the acute accommodation problems faced by officers and soldiers working in Abuja.

However, this same land was handed over to the Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL) by the Army chief to build private homes for sale to military personnel at exorbitant prices.

The company is building six category of apartments that range from N11 million to N125 million which is said to be far beyond the reach of the majority of the personnel.

The sale of the houses is being carried out by Asokoro Hills Estate, a subsidiary of NAPL, which already produced flyers and application forms.

Documents reviewed by Daily Trust show that a 6-bedroom villa has a price tag of N125 million; 5-bedroom villa, N122 million; 4-bedroom detached duplex, N81, 502,526, and 4-bedroom semi-detached duplex, N65, 090,965.

Four-bedroom terrace houses cost N50,418,707; 3-bedroom semi-detached duplex, N42.5 million; 3-bedroom flats, N31,016,380; 2-bedroom flats, N23,566,131and 3-bedroom apartment concord, N11 million.


Houses for soldiers’ welfare - Army

The conversion of the barracks land to private estate, according to information in the application form, “is in line with the mission and vision of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen TY Buratai, ‘to build a professional and responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles’ led to the restructuring of the Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL) as a global business and investment haven of the Nigerian Army, military, para-military and general populace.”

Justifying its action, the army said “modern military formations such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt and even the United States of America, have now made giant strides in the business environment by transforming from only war operations to entrepreneurship in order to better the welfare of its service personnel and to plan their career for post-service development.”


Sale of barracks land illegal - Officers

Some military officers who spoke to Daily Trust on the condition that they would not be named for fear persecution, said the sale of the barracks land is illegal, particularly with the shortage of accommodation by officers and men.

“It is common knowledge that the majority of officers of Brigadier Generals and their juniors, and almost all soldiers working in Abuja share accommodation,” an army officer said.

According to another soldier, “In Niger Barracks, up to three brigadier generals share a 5-bedroom duplex, while in other barracks like Mogadishu Cantonment, two soldiers share a 2-bedroom flat with one sitting room, a kitchen and a toilet with members of their families.

“It is unfortunate that the Army land earmarked to ease this problem is now offered for sale to both soldiers and the public,” the soldier said.

Another issue the military personnel raised is the cost of the houses, which ranges between N11 and N125 million each.

“Where is an officer going to get this amount of money to buy the house? Unless if you are encouraging corruption or the officers behind the project will use their proxies to buy,” another officer said.

The officer said this “land grabbing” is not limited to Abuja as another Army barracks land called “Mini Tiger Estate” at Alapata Ibadan is up for sale. Official documents show that the 151 plots of land at the Alapata estate is sold each at a flat rate of N2.5 million to military personnel and N5 million to civilians.

The sale of the land was conveyed through a memo dated April 12, 2018, under the heading ‘Sale of plots of land at the Nigerian Army Mini Tiger Estate Alapata-Ibadan;’ and signed by Brigadier General COA Idowu, on behalf of the COAS General Buratai.

Another military personnel wondered: “Why is the Army hierarchy auctioning its barracks land in the face of the acute accommodation problem?

“Why is also the Army selling its land and buying other landed properties, for example, the recently purchased Army accommodation in Kubwa running into hundreds of millions of Naira?”

The service personnel added: “Are all these monies lodged in the Federal Government TSA, because these military lands are federal properties.”


What Nigerian Army said

For close to two weeks, Daily Trust tried to obtain comments for the story from the Nigerian Army Director of Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu.

Our reporter had sent the questions to the Army spokesperson about 12 days ago. He later spoke to our reporter saying he was out of Abuja but would be back to the office beginning of last week.

Our reporter went to his office last week three times but did not meet him even though he said he had returned to Abuja.

Last night, Brigadier General Chukwu, sent a text message to our reporter, saying: “I don’t understand what you meant that Army is selling off barracks land and to tell you Army’s stand. I don’t really understand you. You’re looking for something to report; why not think for better questions. I have never heard or seen where Army is selling off barracks land in the whole Nigeria. Thank you,” the army spokesperson said in the text message.

How army land was shared in 2014
On June 4, 2014, Daily Trust exclusively reported how part of a land that was meant for barracks in the Asokoro District was shared out by the Army to 439 beneficiaries, mostly spouses, relations, friends, associates and companies of senior Army officials.

There are also many retired officers as well as civilians on the list of those given allocations from the land.

Daily Trust learnt that the Army carved part of its own land and shared it out to top military brass and others, obviously for them to build private homes and businesses.

The then Chief of Army Staff General Kenneth Minimah and his predecessor General Azubuike Ihejirika were respectively allocated 2035.41sqm and 3909.35sqm of land.

Those who got allocations along with their wives include former Chiefs of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin and Admiral Ibrahim Ola Sa’ad, as well as former Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Mohammed Dikko Umar.

Ihejirika’s wife, Gift, got Plot 4882 which is 2385.59sqm, while another person named Oke Ihejirika was given 1,583.59sqm of land.

A company named Goodok Oil and Gas, which got 7476.95sqm of land, was registered on April 12, 2012, with three directors bearing the ‘Ihejirika; namely: Ihejirika Okechukwu, Ihejirika Chika, and Ihejirika Goodluck.

Current Chief of Army Staff then Major General Buratai, former Chief of Defence Staff General Alexander Ogomudia, former Minister of State for Defence Olusola Obada, counter-terrorism chief Major-General Sarkin-Yaki Bello and Major Hamza Al-Mustapha were also on the list, with various sizes of plot allocations.

SalamRushdie:
Buy at your own risk

mosho2good:
Whenever I see BUHARI or OSINBAJO on my television, I quickly rush to where I kept my PVC to check if it's still there���