Army arrested 8 over encroachment in Zaria

Soldiers stormed Bomo area in Zaria city of Kaduna state yesterday and arrested eight bricklayers with their working tools over land encroachment, BBC Hausa reported.
Residents of Bomo area said the military men  from the 11 Division stormed their quarters and started sporadic shootings that caused panic among the locals. One of the residents told BBC Hausa that the military, who accused the people of  encroaching into their land, threatened to repeat what they recently did to the members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria under the leadership of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.“I was in the house when I heard gun shots from everywhere. Before I come out, women and children ran into the house in panic, saying soldiers were shooting and arresting people outside.“When I went out, truly I saw the soldiers around, and have arrested bricklayers together with their instruments.“They told us that they were asked from above to arrest any person found to be erecting building in the area, since there is a ban by the military for any building,” he said.
The resident, who did not give out his name, however faulted the army’s claim, saying that there was no compensation by government or the military to the owners of the  land.“The truth is that we were not paid compensation. There is nothing like government’s plan to pay us or any indication of the area that it belongs to the government.“They threatened us with all sorts of names, like being Shi’ites and Boko Haram insurgents. But none of us belongs to either of those groups, in reality. They  even threatened to repeat what they did to those people (Shi’ites) to us,” he said.
Another resident, Surajo Musa said the land did  not belong to the military, but to their forefathers.“The military does not possess any land in that area, because the  land belongs to our forefathers. We have papers of ownership.“And in all the struggles we had with military that included out district heads, the soldiers of Jaji Cantonment, the training school, those from the depot and others all know quite well of our position and attested that we were not paid our entitlements,” he said.
In their reaction, the spokesperson of army’s 1Division in Kaduna, Colonel Usman Abdul, said they were aware of the dispute and have information of people selling land in the area, but he refuted any assault to the locals army's spokesperson, Colonel Sani Usman Kukasheka also confirmed the soldiers presence in the area, but denied gun shots.
He said those arrested were transferred to police for selling lands. He said there was no intent to harass anybody and it was untrue that they soldiers threatened to replicate Shi’ites treatment.