Following the recent altercation between Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a Navy Lieutenant, AM Yerima, over a plot of land in the Gaduwa area of Abuja, Lere Olayinka has accused the military of using its personnel as “maiguards”.

Maiguard is a term particularly used in Nigeria to refer to an untrained gatekeeper or security guard. It is an Hausa word that often translates to “gateman”.

Olayinka, a media aide to Wike, while speaking on Channels Television on Wednesday, November 12, expressed worry over the deployment of military personnel led by Yerima to guard the disputed property of a former Chief of Navy Staff, Vice Admiral Gambo, against officials of the FCT Administration led by the Minister.

He said that soldiers who have been trained to fight terrorism and are expected to be deployed to the Lake Chad region, confronting terrorists bedevilling the nation, are now being stationed at uncompleted buildings in Abuja guarding the properties.

“Which one is a security threat to Nigeria? Between soldiers trained to defend Nigeria now being converted to security guards, maiguard, let me use the word maiguard,” Olayinka said.

When cautioned by the presenters that using such words on the nation’s military personnel is disrespectful, Olayinka said, “That’s exactly what they went to do. to guard uncompleted building.”

Recall that on Tuesday, November 11, the Minister and his team of officials from the FCTA had visited the property to prevent further development by engineers on the site.

However, the FCTA team met resistance from military operatives led by Nay Lieutenant Yerima on the ground, further degenerating the situation.

In defence of the action of the Minister, Olayinka said that the former Naval Chief was scammed by the company that sold the land to him.

According to him, “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 parkway, it’s a walkway, it’s a road corridor. You don’t build there.”

He also said that the company had sold the property to Gambo without duly getting an approval for its conversion to from recreational use to commercial purpose.