Does The Army Plan To Confiscate Land In This State?

Does the Nigerian Army plan to confiscate land in the Southwest part of Nigeria?

 That question which has been agitating the minds of many may have been responded to comprehensively.

In a statement yesterday by the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, the army said the allegation that the Nigerian Army plans to confiscate land for a proposed civil-military intervention project in Orolu Community in Osun State was false.

Identifying one Chief Babatunde Oyetunji, Eesa of Ifon, as triggering the rumour following a statement, he said the allegation should be disregarded.

According to Nwachukwu, Chief Oyetunji’s alleged forceful acquisition of their land by the army was entirely false, malicious and an effort by some vested interests to tarnish the good reputation of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS).

“The fact of the matter is that one of the lines of operations of the Nigerian army in tackling  security challenges in the country is the Non-kinetic line of operations.

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“It is a soft approach, aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the public through the instrumentality of Civil-Military Cooperation activities or programmes of the Nigerian Army.

“This effort, is fundamentally geared towards fostering cooperation and galvanising support of the civil populace for army’s diverse operations  to mitigate security challenges across the country”.

The Nigerian army, he added, “usually executes special community intervention projects, such as hospitals, boreholes, electrification amongst others based on needs assessment, after consultations with the leadership of such communities, at the behest of senior officers, who hail from the benefiting community,” he said.

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Providing more explaination on so-called Nigerian Army plan to confiscate land, he said there was only a genuine plan to site a medical centre in the state

According to him, this is coming off a concept by a  retired senior officer for an intervention project –  a medical centre in the state, but that the proposal had not even been formally forwarded to the Chief of Army staff for approval.

Also, the Department of Civil-Military Affairs at the Army Headquarters had not been properly briefed for the commencement for such a project to take off.

“Surprisingly, if the said project for which the COAS  and the Nigerian army are being maligned sails through and is approved, it is a project that will benefit the civil populace and serve humanity, irrespective of  community affiliation.

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“The Nigerian Army hereby absolves itself of any involvement in an attempt to confiscate any community land.

“The Nigerian Army is a professional and law abiding institution that has always followed due process in all her intervention projects, so far undertaken.

“Therefore, members of the public are enjoined to discountenance the allegations and continue to support the Nigerian Army and its Kinetic and None kinetic operations across the country,” the army spokesman added.