The former Chief of Naval Staff was scammed, and he has realised that he was scammed. Instead of coming forward to seek help, he resorted to using military might,” declared Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Publicity and Communications to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, during a fiery appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
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Olayinka’s remarks came amid fallout from a tense Tuesday confrontation between Wike, his entourage, and soldiers guarding a disputed construction site in Abuja’s Gaduwa district. The aide detailed how retired Vice Admiral Auwalu Gambo, Chief of Naval Staff from 2019 to 2021, allegedly fell victim to a fraudulent land transaction orchestrated by Santos Estate Limited, the original 2007 allottee of the plot for park and recreation purposes.
“That particular land was allocated to a company in 2007, Santos Estate Limited, for park and recreation. The company did not do anything on the land because that place is a road corridor; you don’t build there,” Olayinka explained, brandishing allocation letters and site layouts on air to underscore the violation. In 2022, Santos sought FCT approval to convert the land for commercial use, a request denied by then-Minister Muhammad Bello. Undeterred, the firm partitioned and sold portions, including to Gambo, giving buyers false assurances of approval.
Olayinka emphasized the site’s redesignation for public and corporate buildings, not residential. “As of today, Vice Admiral Gambo does not have a document, a title document showing that he owns the land.” He questioned Gambo’s recourse: “Who should the Chief of Naval Staff go and hold? The person who scammed him or the government? He chose not to hold the person who scammed him.”
Construction proceeded without an approved building plan from the FCT Department of Development Control, prompting stop-work notices. Military personnel, reportedly Gambo’s repurposed personal security detail, barred inspectors and allegedly issued threats of violence.
Wike’s on-site assessment, joined by FCT Commissioner of Police Bennett Igweh, DSS agents, and civil defense personnel, turned explosive when soldiers barricaded the access road with an armored vehicle. Forced to trek, the minister demanded entry and documents, blasting the standoff as impunity: “You cannot be higher than any government. You cannot be carrying a gun to intimidate anybody. I am not one of those that they can intimidate.”
Footage showed a junior officer’s defiance, dismissing police as “bloody policemen” and showing scant respect during a phone conversation with Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Christopher Musa. A DSS operative reportedly rebuked a soldier for pointing a rifle at the minister. Olayinka, who was present throughout, decried the misuse of troops. “Military men posted to the former Chief of Naval Staff to secure him, to guard him, to protect him, he now chooses to make himself vulnerable and send those people on an errand.”
Prior outreach included a letter from the FCT Director of Security to Defence Headquarters two weeks earlier, which was met with silence, and Wike’s pre-visit call to the CDS.
Lashing out at Nigeria’s “zero attitude to compliance,” Olayinka challenged blind obedience. “You obey the law, you obey order, yes. But that order has to be lawful. If my superior gives me an order to go and shoot somebody, will I obey the order?” He criticized the conversion of elite guards into “private guards” for uncompleted buildings, adding: “Military men who should be at the war front confronting terrorists are being converted to maiguards.”
On Wike’s heated response, which included name-calling the officer, Olayinka offered a defense. “If you were there yesterday, you would lose your temper. We are no longer under military rule. The military is subject to civil authorities.”
Olayinka fired back at Buratai. “A former Chief of Army Staff is not concerned about uniformed military men being converted to private guards but is worried about a military officer who went to do unlawful duty?”
A Defence Headquarters Instagram post later read, “It is an honor to serve in the Nigerian military: Unshaken, Unbent, Unbroken,” sparking speculation of a veiled response.
Gambo and the military have yet to comment, although on-site soldiers claimed he held documents, a claim Olayinka dismissed.
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