Army, Bauchi communities flex muscle over 200- year old settlement
Trouble is brewing between Nigerian Army and some communities situated around the Shadawanka Army Barracks in Bauchi Metropolitan over a quit notice issued by the army to them to vacate the land for its operation. The quit notice issued by the army to the local dwellers has not gone down well with the residents who are claiming that the army came to meet them on the land and took as much land as it wanted. They said it is unfair for them to be driven out of their ancestral land.
To register their resentment of the army’s notice, the communities mobilized in large numbers and stormed the Bauchi-Jos Highway with placards bearing various inscriptions to drive home their grievances over what they termed “illegal eviction”.
The large expanse of land, occupied mainly by the army in the centre of Bauchi city was home to many Bauchi indigenes for several centuries before it was allocated to the army during the General Yakubu Gowon regime in the 1970s without compensation and resettlement of occupants of the communities.
Consequently, some of the inhabitants who moved to the fringes of the allocated land, are demanding justice in the form of compensation and decent resettlement plan for their families. An elder and head of the troubled communities, who claimed that his ancestors settled in the now disputed Guru village around the mid 1800s, has accused the Bauchi Emirate Council of colluding with army to forcefully eject them from their ancestral land.
However, an army source familiar with the land in question, refuted claims of forceful ejection of the residents, claiming that the land which need to be fenced for security reasons, was legally allocated to them some 48 years ago to build the barracks. The source said that the army is not part of any compensation process to resettle inhabitants of the area.
“What i know and believe is that soldiers have no problem with anyone. The land was allocated to the Army for the purpose of building barracks by the Bauchi State Government for more than 48 years. The map and certificate were issued to the army and the army is not a part of the compensation process. The compensation that they seek should be from the Bauchi State Government and Bauchi Emirate Council”, the army spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, a source at the Bauchi Emirate Council said that the Emirate had reached out to the former Chief of Staff, General Tukur Buratai, to appeal for an amicable resolution of the issue but nothing was done for the people of the communities while the army fenced on the non-disputed area of the barracks.
Special Adviser to Bauchi State Governor on Security, Brigadier-General Yake (retd) whose intervention helped to clear the protesters from the road had pledged that government and all stake holders involved will meet to resolve the matter. But until words are matched with action, the land dispute between the army and the people of the affected communities is far from over.
