ARMY SELLS LANDS IN THE BARRACKS TO PUBLIC

The Nigerian army has put up its land meant for barracks for sale to the public to build private homes and businesses, Daily Trust investigations have shown.

This is coming at a time the military is facing acute shortage of accommodation for its personnel.

About four years ago, this newspaper reported how the Army shared out to top military brass part of a land meant for barracks in the Asokoro district, Abuja.


Investigations have shown that the current land in question, Plot 2302, measuring about 248.19 hectares, is located behind Mogadishu Cantonment. Its land use is still “Public Institution (Military Formation).

Further findings revealed that the Federal Capital Territory allocated the land to ease the acute accommodation problems faced by officers and soldiers working in Abuja.

However, this same land was handed over to the Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL) by the Army chief to build private homes for sale to military personnel at exorbitant prices.

The company is building six category of apartments that range from N11 million to N125 million which is said to be far beyond the reach of the majority of the personnel.

The sale of the houses is being carried out by Asokoro Hills Estate, a subsidiary of NAPL, which already produced flyers and application forms.

Documents reviewed by Daily Trust show that a 6-bedroom villa has a price tag of N125 million; 5-bedroom villa, N122 million; 4-bedroom detached duplex, N81, 502,526, and 4-bedroom semi-detached duplex, N65, 090,965.

Four-bedroom terrace houses cost N50,418,707; 3-bedroom semi-detached duplex, N42.5 million; 3-bedroom flats, N31,016,380; 2-bedroom flats, N23,566,131and 3-bedroom apartment concord, N11 million.

Houses for soldiers’ welfare - Army

The conversion of the barracks land to private estate, according to information in the application form, “is in line with the mission and vision of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen TY Buratai, ‘to build a professional and responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles’ led to the restructuring of the Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL) as a global business and investment haven of the Nigerian Army, military, para-military and general populace.”

Justifying its action, the army said “modern military formations such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt and even the United States of America, have now made giant strides in the business environment by transforming from only war operations to entrepreneurship in order to better the welfare of its service personnel and to plan their career for post-service development.”