A legal practitioner based in Port Harcourt, Mr. Princewill Dike, has urged security agencies to immediately arrest and prosecute the soldiers involved in threatening to shoot the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, during an incident in Abuja on Tuesday.
The call comes in the wake of a confrontation between the Minister and the soldiers over a property under development in the FCT, which allegedly lacks proper title documents and building approvals.
Dike strongly denounced the soldiers’ actions, asserting that they were operating under instructions from their superior, a former Chief of Naval Staff.
He explained that the Minister had directed the developers to halt work on the property due to the absence of required documentation and approvals, questioning why the former naval chief would disregard such an order.
Instead of complying with the Minister’s directive to cease the project, the soldiers reportedly threatened to open fire on Wike and officials from the FCTA’s Department of Development Control.
Dike declared: “Impunity must not persist in this nation.
The incident this afternoon between the FCT Minister, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, and some soldiers in the Federal Capital Territory deserves widespread condemnation from all Nigerians.
“Rather than adhere to the order, soldiers were mobilized by the unlawful property owner—former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo—to confront the FCT Minister.
“The soldiers issued threats to shoot the Minister and the FCTA Development Control officials. However, Wike is not one to yield to intimidation.”
The lawyer emphasized that the harassment was not directed solely at Wike but effectively at President Bola Tinubu, who has empowered the Minister to oversee FCT matters on his behalf.
“Unbeknownst to them, it is not the Minister they targeted, but the President himself.”
