Urges Security Forces to Focus on Their Constitutional Mandate.
A civil rights group— Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has raised the alarm over alleged land grabs and misuse of men of the Nigerian Air Force in Enugu State.
Speaking in a press conference on Sunday in Abuja, the HURIWA Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the rights group has been inundated with petitions from all over the Country on the apparent professional misconduct of men and officers of some military outfits which goes against their constitutional mandates as clearly spelt out in sections 217-220 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended.
Onwubiko, who stated that this is not the first time HURIWA is emphasizing on the military to focus on their Constitutional mandate, stated that any manifestation of misuse of the military which attempts to take them away from their Constitutional functions to chase civil matters not in tandem with the provisions of the law should be frowned at very strongly.
He expressed dismay that while the entire Northern Nigeria is under one form of attacks or the other with thousands of civilians getting killed and communities getting burnt and destroyed, yet, officers of the Nigerian Air Force are been misused and deployed to chase land owners around Enugu because they (Air Force officers) were allegedly bribed by the Housing ministry to take people’s lands to sell to land speculators.
On why HURIWA is concerned about the land matter, he said, “Our concern is that land in Nigeria is life, it is part of the identity of the people so, whenever the issues of deprivation of the rights to own immovable properties are highlighted, it touches on the fundamentals of the human rights provisions, that’s why we are concerned”.
The petition sent to HURIWA from Enugu State, accused the Nigerian Air Force of being misused to chase land owners all around so as to extort these assets for the benefit of some godfathers in the Enugu State ministry of Housing, who allegedly sell dubiously to land SPECULATORS thereby depriving rightful owners their right to own immovable property as guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution.
The presentation goes thus: “RE: PROPOSED ILLEGAL TAKEOVER OF A PORTION OF OUR LAND PROPOSED NEW ENUGU CITY PROJECT located at Ugwuaji Awkunanaw. Enugu South LGA. BY ENUGU STATE MINISTRY OF HOUSING ENUGU STATE: SOS APPEAL TO HURIWA”.
It says: “The attached letter to the Hon. Commissioner of Lands was indeed written at a time when the Ministry of Housing didn’t have a substantive Commissioner responsible for the smooth running of the ministry. Sole supervision of the Ministry was left in the hands of the Permanent Secretary who had to be “attentioned” in that letter.
“Different levels of resistance have had to be mounted against the actors of State who, in the guise of some false promises of development have turned Enugu State into the new epicenter for land grabbing activities.
“In this particular instance, the situation was somewhat contained until Mr. Vitus Okechi was named the substantive Commissioner for Housing. He has, since then, sworn to annex all community lands to himself and a few cronies. Unsurprisingly, besides the many disappointing moves he has made thus far, he has recently gone as far as engaging the services of men of the Nigerian Air Force, whose focus and objective should have been on external and territorial incursions into the Nigerian Airspace. How he manages to drag these expected-to-be-highly-disciplined officers to the role of land grabbing beats the imagination of the ordinary mind.
“HURIWA is kindly requested to appeal to and to task the dear Governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, whose antecedents suggest, is peace loving and subservient to the dictates of the rule of law to call this his lieutenant, Commissioner of Housing Mr. Vitus Okechi, to order, before hapless citizens resort to self-help and anarchy sets in.
“HURIWA is equally kindly requested to draw the attention of the Heads of Security agencies to wit; The Chief of Air Staff, to this dangerous trend of men and officers of the Security architecture, abandoning their core responsibility and becoming undertakers for land grabbers in Enugu. Examples are rife everywhere”, they said.
The Community which also disclosed that it has concluded arrangements to send petitions to the Office of the NSA, the Minister of Defence as well as to the Chief of Army Staff by Monday, added that it has planned also, to engage in a peaceful protest to drive home its message.
HURIWA on its part, called on the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar to immediately investigate this set of allegation from Enugu state and ensure that the NAF is not in any way involved in land matters.
According to Onwubiko, “We want to say that the respective service chiefs particularly the NAF should take special interest in this set of allegations that this Community has made. We’ve visited this Community, and they have raised their fears.
“The military are trained to stabilize our national security that has been buffeted by violent attacks coordinated by people we don’t know where they come from. They should be focused and forget about land related civil matters or issues that have to deal with husbands and wives”, he added.
Furthermore, Onwubiko warned the Police, NAF, and Armed Security Forces not to inflict harm on demonstrators, noting that if citizens are aggrieved, it is their Constitutional right to protest. “Any democracy that is clamping down on protestors is wrong. We are denouncing any attempts by the security forces to stop Nigerians from protesting”.
He urged Nigerians to get acquainted with sections 217-220 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended that comprehensively addresses the legal roles and functions of the Armed forces of Nigeria.
