Natives block Abuja airport road, protest destruction of crops by Navy

Indigenous people of the FCT from Iddo-Sarki community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), on Wednesday, blocked Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Expressway (Airport Road) from Airport Junction down to the permanent site of the University of Abuja (Uniabuja) to protest the alleged destruction of their crops by the Nigerian Navy (NN). City & Crime reports that […]

Indigenous people of the FCT from Iddo-Sarki community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), on Wednesday, blocked Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Expressway (Airport Road) from Airport Junction down to the permanent site of the University of Abuja (Uniabuja) to protest the alleged destruction of their crops by the Nigerian Navy (NN).

City & Crime reports that motorists were held down for over six hours as the protesters used stones and wood to block the road.

The leader of Iddo Sarki community, Comrade Adamu Ishaku, said they decided to block the road in order to protest the destruction of their crops by the navy.

He said it was unacceptable that despite the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, and the National Assembly ordering both parties to maintain the status quo over a lingering land dispute, the navy continued to use force to take over their ancestral land.

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He further said, “In fact, when the navy were asked to tender documents that the land was allocated to them, they were unable to tender any.”

He further said that it was unfortunate that despite the hunger in the country, the navy decided to chase natives away from their ancestral farmland in order to prevent them from cultivating crops.

Ishaku, therefore, appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly and Mr Wike to intervene and address the land dispute between the community and the navy.

City & Crime further reports that the road was later opened after the Chairman of AMAC, Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, arrived at the scene and addressed the protesters.

He said, “What is happening here today is very unfortunate in the sense that I am very much aware that the National Assembly had put a stop to any demolition and forceful takeover of the natives’ farmland.”

“And I am very much aware that we have sat with the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, over this land matter after which the minister asked the navy to stop any development on the land; yet the exercise has continued.”

He, therefore, appealed to both the army and the navy to join him in heeding the invitation of the FCT Commissioner of Police (CP), Benneth Igweh, in his office in order to amicably address the issue.