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 Association (FCDA) to the place when some soldiers stopped them from entering the place.
Furious, the minister shouted on top of his voice but the soldiers stood their ground.
“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,” he shouted, but the soldiers, who said they were acting on orders from above refused to allow him go in.
“It’s really unfortunate. And you heard what was said by the former Chief of Staff,” Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers State, said.
“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.”
The land at the center of the dispute is said to be owned by a former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Zubairu Gambo.
This was a post by Nyesom Wike’s spokesman Lere Adeyinka on the incident
"Because he was told to stop building on a land he has no TITLE DOCUMENT and Building Approval, former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, sent his Armed Military Security Details to attack men of the FCTA Department of Development Control.
He also stationed armed Military Men to protect the illegal development, with the Military Men threatening to shoot anyone who interfere with them.
Today, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, visited the site, after talking to the Chief of Defence Staff on Phone "