The recent, heated scuffle in Abuja between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and an Army Lieutenant, A.M. Yerima, over a land dispute was not an isolated incident, but rather the latest manifestation of a recurring challenge to civilian authority in Nigeria.
A video obtained by our correspondent captured the heated exchange, in which Wike accused the officer of unlawfully taking possession of a parcel of land. The minister challenged the officer for laying claim to the property simply because it was linked to a former Chief of Naval Staff.
The military officer maintained that he was acting based on orders received from his command, thereby pushing back efforts by the representative of the Federal Government to take possession of the disputed land.
In this article, TVC revisited past events documenting the troubling pattern of confrontations between military, police, and other security personnel (the “men in uniform”) and representatives of both the Federal Government and State Government officials, including Governors.
Police Defy Governor Sanwo-Olu in Lagos
One of such events is that of a Chief Superintendent of Police, Abimbola Oyewole, on Tuesday 4th of January 2022. openly defied the order of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to vacate the Magodo Phase 2 Estate area of the state.
The CSP told the governor that he and his armed colleagues were at the estate on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, as well as the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
Sanwo-Olu had led members of his cabinet to visit the residents protesting the continuous presence of armed policemen in the estate.
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For days, policemen besieged the estate in the company of suspected land grabbers and members of a family who had planned to demolish property in the choice estate to execute a Supreme Court judgment. The development has caused commotion at the estate as landlords and tenants panic over their fate.
Police are alleged to have disrupted Rivers State Polls.
According to The Guardian, on the 5th of October 2024, the Local Government election processes were going on smoothly until some men dressed in Nigerian Police uniforms arrived at the Elekahia Primary School in Port Harcourt City local government area and started shooting teargas and seizing election materials.
The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) officers and voters scampered for safety following the sad development.
It was gathered that about 21 Hilux patrol vans with heavily armed operatives drove into the venue from Elekahia Road, and as soon as they arrived, they fired teargas, which caused pandemonium in the area.
Some of the armed security men were masked; they directed the RSIEC officials to remove their vests and hand them over.
According to eyewitnesses, the security operatives also chased RSIEC officers who had arrived earlier and set up their stands to begin accreditation in Ward 19, which has ten units.
Some of the operatives were seen shouting to the RSIEC officials scampering for safety: “Come here, remove that vest. What are you doing here? Common move!”
