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There was tension in Abuja, on Tuesday, when soldiers blocked Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), from gaining access to a land in Gaduwa.
Wike had led officials of the Federal Capital Territory Development Administration (FCDA) to the place when some soldiers stopped them from entering.
Furious, the minister shouted on top of his voice but the soldiers stood their ground.
Wike asked why the soldiers mounted a siege to the property simply because it was linked 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 said.
But the officer objected saying the acquisition was lawful.
“I am an officer with integrity. Everything was acquired legally,” he replied.
“Shut up,” Wike thundered, to which the officer responded, “I will not shut up.”
“You are a very big fool. As at the time I graduated, you were still in primary school,” Wike shouted.
“You will see if you will not leave here. Go and develop there and let me see.”
The security men in Wike’s entourage tried to persuade the soldiers to allow Wike access the land but they refused,
“We cannot continue to act in impunity. We cannot continue this way. 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,” the minister shouted, yet the soldiers who said they were acting on orders from above refused to allow him go in.
“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.
“I’m not one of those kinds of people who will succumb to blackmail.”
