A Calabar-based human rights lawyer, Barr. Mba Ukweni (SAN), has asked the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, to withdraw soldiers of the 245 Battalion, Afi Barracks, Ikom local government area of Cross River State, from government-owned Cocoa plantations in Etung local Government area of the state.
The senior lawyer made the call while reacting to what he described as “unlawful taking-over” of cocoa plantations by military personnel during a telephone conversation with LEADERSHIP in Calabar, the State capital, on Thursday.
Ukweni stated that the call became necessary to avoid an outbreak of civil unrest that could put lives and property in the community in danger.
Also, a letter from Ukweni’s law firm in Calabar, addressed to the COAS, titled “Complaint of Unwarranted Arrest, Intimidation, Harassment and Abuse of Office by Soldiers of 245 Battalion”, sighted by LEADERSHIP in Calabar, urged the Nigerian Army not to allow itself to be dragged into a civil matter on which a competent court of law had given a restraining order.
“Soldiers cannot be residing permanently in the cocoa farms acquired by our clients after money had been paid into payment coffers of state government only for my clients to be denied opportunity to reap from their investment.
“We are not at war to warrant deployment of soldiers to the cocoa plantations. It’s a civil matter that the court had given an injunction restraining state government from evicting my clients from their farms, which they genuinely paid for.
“Soldiers cannot abandon their very important responsibility of protecting the territorial integrity of the nation and be meddling in a civil matter which had been taken care of by the court, intimidating and beating my clients up in their cocoa farms. This isn’t correct, sir,” the lawyer wrote.
Ukweni urged the Army boss not to condescend so low in a civil matter that the State High Court in Effraya, Etung local government area of the State, had given a restraining order barring the state government from evicting farmers from the 1,415 hectares of land allocated to them by the immediate-past administration of former Governor Ben Ayade.
When our correspondent contacted the Army Public Relations Officer (PRO), 13 Brigade headquaters, Nigeria Army, Akim Barracks, Calabar, Capt. Jemila Jimoh, for reaction, the PRO who neither admit nor deny the allegations against the Army said, “I will get back to you, let me find out what is happening first, before I can say anything, Ikom is very far from the state capital Calabar.”