By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
Air Commodore Abayomi Balogun served in the Air Force for 34 years. He retired in 2014 as Deputy Director of Operations.
While in service, he held several appointments, including Assistant Director of Operations in Defense Headquarters and Director of Training, Nigerian Air Force.
In this interview, he narrates how a property he acquired was demolished without prior notice and how his investment was looted during the demolition.
Excerpts
It was reported that a property you acquired was demolished recently. What is the reason for the demolition?
Actually, the property did not belong to me. I leased it from somebody. It was in a park, so I leased that space, and I paid for three years. I had just stayed there for six months. I moved in there in March 2025, and by August 7, 2025, the demolition team came and said they had issued earlier warnings, which I never saw—three times in 2024. I wasn’t there then when the warnings were given. I approached the Director of Development who was there at the site and told him that I was the one occupying the place and he should give me some time to remove my property. But he said he had no time, he had to do a job that he had been sent to do. When I asked him if he knew me, he said, yes, he knew me to have retired and that he also wanted to retire and I should let him do the job he had been sent to do. At that time, I thought he was still joking. Not quite one hour later, they brought in the bulldozers without prior warning. When they arrived at the park, they marked all the 12 structures there, including two football fields. They were shouting that they were going to level the whole place. But immediately they demolished my place, they stopped, withdrew the bulldozer and left. As they were pulling out the bulldozers, miscreants popularly called, ‘babangbolas’ in Abuja, just stormed the place and looted whatever was remaining. In fact, they were there with cutlasses and machetes. So my staff who were even trying to pick their things couldn’t do so. So, we just left them and lost everything in that demolition.
Can you quantify in monetary terms the loss you incurred?
I just acquired the place and renovated it including furnishing. Everything is over ¦ 50 million. I begged the head of the demolition team to please allow me to remove some of my things, but he refused.
What was wrong with the place? Was it acquired illegally?
No, it was in a park, and the place I rented also was leased from the park management by somebody. When he couldn’t run his business well, he leased it to me. But later, after the demolition, I found out that the park management and Mr Segun, who leased that place to me, had been having issues, and they had been threatening to use the Development Control Unit to chase him out of the place because they wanted him out. He said he would not leave because his rent was still running and that was what he had transferred to me. So it was after the demolition that I learned that it was the management of the park that instigated the Development Control team to demolish my place. The Development Control team had been at the park to partition all the land and then create a road which they did. The place I was occupying had been cleared ready for erection of another structure there. So, the Development Control team did not do anything justifiably by demolishing my place.
As a very senior military officer who served the country meritoriously and retired, it is expected that you should have called the authorities when it happened. Does it mean that you don’t have people protecting the place as expected of persons of your caliber?
It was unexpected, nobody knew it would happen. But when they started, I called the police, I called the Air Force, they all came. But by the time they got there, the deed had been done, there was nothing they could do. The Development Control team entered the park with policemen, the Civil Defence—so many people wielding rifles all over the place, as if they had come for war. So, there was little I could do than to watch them do whatever they wanted to do.
Did you take it up with the authorities of the Federal Capital Development Authority or the Federal Capital Territory Administration, as the case may be?
When it happened, my first line of action was to go the legal way because they did not give me any notice. So I went to consult a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who took up the case. But as we were preparing to take the case to court, Human Rights Radio’s Ahmed Isah called me with a view to resolving the matter amicably. During the interview on TV and radio, he contacted the Development Control director, Mr. Galadima on phone to verify what had happened. When he was asked to confirm if notice was given to me before the demolition, he said he gave me notice in 2024, 2025 January, and June 2025 and that I had been at the place for five years. But when he was confronted with the fact that I had only spent six months there and not five years, he admitted that a mistake had been made and that I should not go to court. He said it would be resolved amicably and I should come to his office and we would fashion a way out. So, I abandoned the legal option and then waited for the development control to tell me when to meet him. When I did not hear from him after about two months, I sent my driver and my lawyer to his office to confirm a date that would be convenient for him, but he drove them away telling them that he just wanted to help me, and that if he did not help me, there was nothing I could do. He refused to fix a date when we can meet to resolve it and so the case is still in limbo.
It means that you’re not in court, and you’ve not been able to take this matter to the Minister of FCT?
I have a friend in the National Assembly, a member of the House of Reps, who took me to the minority leader. I was advised to write an official petition to the FCT minister and then bring a copy so that he could follow it up. I’ve written that petition, I’ve submitted it to the Minister for the past two months, but we’ve not heard anything. I gave a copy of the petition to the House minority leader, who promised he would follow it up. But I’ve not heard anything since then.
How did the demolition of the property affect you?
It affected me emotionally, because I had just finished renovating the place, and it took me a lot of effort and money, and then for me to just stand there and watch them bring it down. The development control director was there watching with me standing and smiling as if he was doing something just. So it really affected me emotionally.
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