By Emmanuel Kwada
Palpable tension gripped the Gaduwa area of Abuja on Tuesday as armed soldiers prevented Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), from accessing a parcel of land, sparking a heated confrontation between the minister and military personnel.
Wike, accompanied by officials from the Federal Capital Territory Development Administration (FCDA), arrived at the site to inspect the property when soldiers stationed there barred their entry. The minister, visibly enraged, engaged in a shouting match with the officers, accusing them of shielding the land due to its alleged ties to a former Chief of Naval Staff.
“Because you are an officer? Nobody does that. The man took land because he was the Chief of Naval Staff?” Wike bellowed, questioning the legality of the land’s acquisition.
A senior officer present defended the blockade, insisting, “I am an officer with integrity. Everything was acquired legally.”
The exchange quickly escalated. “Shut up,” Wike thundered, to which the officer retorted, “I will not shut up.”
“You are a very big fool. As at the time I graduated, you were still in primary school,” the minister shouted, threatening, “You will see if you will not leave here. Go and develop there and let me see.”
Despite efforts by Wike’s security detail to de-escalate the situation and persuade the soldiers to grant access, the military personnel stood firm, stating they were acting on “orders from above.”
Wike condemned the soldiers’ actions as an act of impunity, declaring, “We cannot continue to act in impunity. This country cannot go along this line. You cannot be higher than any government. You cannot be carrying a gun to intimidate anybody. I am not one of those that they can intimidate.”
He further criticized the alleged landowner, a former military chief, for failing to resolve the dispute through official channels. “I don’t understand how somebody who attained that position, seeing that he has a problem, cannot approach my office to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on,’ or simply because he is a military man, they could use that to intimidate Nigerians,” Wike said. “I’m not one of those kinds of people who will succumb to blackmail.”
The standoff highlights ongoing tensions over land administration in the FCT, where disputes involving powerful figures, including current and former military officers, have frequently stalled development projects. The FCDA has been cracking down on illegal land allocations, a move that has pitted the administration against influential stakeholders.
As of press time, neither the FCT Administration nor the Nigerian Army has issued an official statement on the incident. Residents of Gaduwa expressed concern over the confrontation, with some calling for a swift resolution to avoid further escalation.
The dispute underscores the challenges of enforcing land reforms in Abuja, where competing claims often involve high-profile individuals. Authorities are expected to provide clarity on the ownership status of the contested property in the coming days.
