The Nigerian Navy has decried hostility from its host Mbaikyar community of North Bank in Makurdi Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State over alleged compensation for land donated to them by the State government to build their operational base.
In September last year, Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia donated 150 hectares of land to the Nigerian Navy for the construction of a Naval barracks, schools and a hospital.
The piece of land is located opposite the Alfred Akawe Torkula Polytechnic in Makurdi’s North Bank metropolis.
Over the weekend, Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, while condemning the hostility from the host community, admonished traditional rulers from the Mbaikyar community to embrace the Nigerian Navy as a friend rather than seeing them as an enemy.
Admiral Ogalla, represented by Rear Admiral Kennedy Ezete, spoke during the combined induction ceremony of 43 graduates comprising nine officers and 34 ratings from the Nigerian Navy Provost and Regulating School in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The CNS thanked the Benue State government for allocating a vast land to the Navy for possible relocation of Nigerian Navy Provost and Regulating School and the establishment of a naval base, stressing that the present location was too small for their expansion.
Admiral Ogalla decried the activities of some members of the host community who dragged the Navy to court over compensation for their land which he said the State government already paid for, urging the traditional rulers present at the occasion to talk to their people.
“The traditional rulers should talk to their subjects to see the Nigerian Navy as their friend not enemy. A few of them sued the Nigerian Navy in court over payment of compensation. Such act should be discouraged please,” he said.
Ogalla disclosed that the construction of a parameter fence had already commenced at the new site to secure the land, urging those he described as being mischievous to desist from the legal battle because the state government had paid compensation for the land to the natives.