Horrible Day Land-Grabbing Civil Defence Officers, Shooting Recklessly, Battered Premier Estate Workers In Abuja
The Managing Director and owner of Premier Homes, an estate under Premier Homes Interproject Limited, has cried out over Civil Defence officers invading his property and inflicting injuries on six of his workers.
He said he bought the 28 hectares from KYC Interproject Limited to form part of his estate’s original total land holding of 170 hectares.
Premier Homes estate is within the same estate land of KYC.
Within the same estate, “My estate land is covered by KYC owner’s title of FCDA R of O title. I signed a Memorandum of Understanding and other agreements with the company. He gave me 28 hectares with the agreement and some documents.
“My Site Manager, Muhammad Jamiu Yakubu, and other staff were working on the site on the 18th May 2026 when four truckloads of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps officers invaded the estate and injured them. Despite six of them suffering various degrees of bodily harm, they were whisked away and detained at NSCDC Zone 5 Command. All the six had visible physical injuries. From 12 noon of May 18, they were detained until 9 pm before being released.”
According to the Site Manager, an NSCDC Commander Boniface Udeh and his assistant, Braimoh Yakubu, led the invasion and vandalisation.
Narrating the genesis of the blowout, the MD of Premier Homes said: “They first encroached into three hectares of our land, we did not talk, hoping that when all harmonisation was complete, we would know who really owns it. We did not touch that place. We went to work on the virgin land to start working. The three hectares they encroached upon have small structures there. We did not touch that place. We left that place and started working on the virgin land.
“Then the next thing was that Boniface started calling my Manager to book an appointment with him. He booked appointments with my Manager up to four occasions, all of which he didn’t keep.
“The grader was working, but we stopped working thinking they would come to talk with us. All these went on as we continued paying the hired caterpillar for four days. We paid N840,000 per day upfront.
“Their not coming to discuss with me was causing enormous losses. I said we cannot continue paying graders everyday without the graders working for us. So they started to work yesterday.
“When they saw that we started working they came to beat my men and injured them.”
According to the estate entrepreneur, the bone of contention arose from the fact that the Civil Defence officers claimed they acquired 200 hectares of land for the Civil Defence Cooperative Society.
While Boniface Udeh is the Chairman of the cooperative, Braimoh Yakubu, an Assistant Commandant, is his deputy.
He went on: “Earlier, I reported the matter to the Deputy Inspector General DIG in charge of the Federal Investigation Department (FID) of the Nigeria Police. In my complaint to the FID, I said I don’t know the person that is encroaching on my land.
“The DIG said I should go and start working, that somebody would come out. When I started working, those people now came out and beat up my workers. Then I went back to the DIG and wrote a direct criminal complaint against their leader, Boniface Braimoh.
“We have called them several times to come out and let’s resolve this matter. They refused. The next thing was for them to mobilise four truckloads of officers to beat my men.
“They were shooting sporadically with guns. They did not kill anybody, but they injured persons with sticks and gun butts. They injured one of my staffers’ head with the bayonet of their gun. They use the guns’ butt to break his hand.”
Yakubu Muhammadu Jamil, the Site Manager, relived the horrible encounter with the NSCDC men.
Jamil narrated: “On 18th May 2026, where I was on the site clearing virgin land, some Civil Defence officers came with a Hilux vehicle, led by Mr. Boniface, claiming to be the owners of the land allocated directly to Civil Defense officers. When they came, without questioning, they started shooting, demanding for the team leader. So, I moved out to a gentleman called Dotun, who was in mufti. I just meant to explain to him that I was the one.
“On getting close to him, I said, ‘Good afternoon, Sir.’ He said, ‘Who are you?’ I told him I was the one in charge of this clearing. He just jerked up my shirt and gave me a head butt.
“I said, ‘Sir, I’m trying to explain something to you, that this is a civil case, and there’s no point for your men to be shooting guns on the site, and you are head-butting me.’
“He removed his pistol and shot on the ground towards me. So I stepped back. Those other officers, six of them, ran to me and descended on me, started beating me. So I was shouting that I have one of their senior officers’ number, Mr Boniface, that talked to me through the Fulani people that they have there as their security people on the site. The man didn’t care.
“He collected my phone, Redme 14 Pro and smashed it. In the confusion, I saw the name on his tag as M.O. Ochejoko. They started beating me, when I was shouting that this is a civil case, and we are not criminals. That is why we are waiting here to explain to you people that if you have any land here, there is an authority that allocated the land. Go back to the authority. If you are not satisfied, you can go to court. So then I was in ground. Then M.O. Ochejoko told the officer that I was still talking on the ground. He said they should hit me. That was when they hit me on my shoulder, and my loin. My shoulder got dislocated. They hit me with sticks and gun butts. They used the stick on my ear on my waist, then the gun butt on my shoulder. They dragged me to their van and took me to their station around after 12 noon. I was there till 9pm yesterday.
“They held us at their Civil Defence Command at Wuse Zone Five. They came with four Hilux, together with a black jeep and two vehicles. There were altogether seven vehicles that came for the operation.
“Mr. Dada was injured with their gun on his leg. Lookman was injured. Abdul Karim, they use guns that have knives in their mouth to smash his head. The man used the boot of the gun and hit him in the forehead; that is why his head became swollen. Others sustained various levels of injuries.”
Meanwhile, when contacted on the incident by journalists, the Assistant Commandant of NSCDC, Mr. Boniface Udeh, declined comments.
The officer said the matter had been reported officially and NSCDC was waiting for the outcome of the investigation.
