…deploys machine guns carrying personnel
Tension is brewing in Calabar following the forceful take over of a prime land belonging to the Cross River State Government by the Nigerian Navy, on which it is building a 5-star hotel.
This is in spite of a subsisting court order stopping the Navy from continuing work on the said land.
It has also deployed its armed personnel, some of them wielding very sophisticated guns, to the property.
The said property lies within the precincts of government offices.
Speaking on the development, the state commissioner for Lands, Prof. John Inyang decried the attitude of the Navy and directed
the immediate stoppage of work on the site.
The commissioner said the land on which the Navy is building the hotel was never allocated to it by the state, even as he raised security concerns about situating a 5-star hotel on the land, given that it lies within the precincts of government offices, including the governor’s office.
“The Nigerian Navy started construction on the land in question without seeking due approval from the state government even when no structural, architectural, electrical or site analysis approvals have been given neither were they applied for,” Inyang stated.
Speaking further, he said: “the Calabar urban master plan development does not show that a commercial development can fit in there. All around the location are government offices such as Accountant General, Town planning, Surveyor General, CRGIA, Stadium, civil service secretariat amongst others.
“A hotel at the location will not fit in there. Building a 5-star hotel at that location serves as a security risk especially when Governor’s Office can be viewed from the hotel. The state building regulations must be respected and rule of law must be observed.
“Several notices of stop work have been served and all to no avail. Consficating state land under any guise and by which ever establishments and agencies, private or public cannot be tolerated. The state has in time past allocated several plots of land to Navy. The recent one being over 100 hectares for the establishment of Navy War College. We are ready to give Navy an alternative land for the hotel but not the present location.”
He called on all professional bodies like Council of Registers Engineers in Nigeria (COREN), Town Planners etc to rise to the challenge by urging Navy to obey extant laws of the state for a peaceful co-existence.
Also speaking, The Director of Town planing, Mr Ayi Akiba, said by carrying out the construction of the building without the approval from town planing, the Nigerian Navy has contravened the relevant provisions of both the state law and the national law.”