On Thursday, a soldier ordered a young apprentice to crawl inside a dirty gutter in Ekiti State for urging him to be patient.
Moyinoluwa Emmanuel, a trader who witnessed the incident, said it happened around 10:00 am in Fayose Market, Ado-Ekiti.
He said a woman brought the soldier to the market to help her recover N30,000 from a debtor, and he harassed anyone who dared to intervene.
“The soldier threatened to stab and kill anybody who dared come near him with the knife he was holding,” Emmanuel said.
According to Emmanuel, the apprentice had pleaded with the soldier to calm down.
“The soldier ordered this young man to crawl inside dirty water just because he said, ‘Oga soja, eni suuru” which means ‘soldier, please calm down.’
https://youtu.be/ANyNCndhMUo
“After he left the market, the whole marketers had an emergency meeting based on the harassment and humiliation done to us inside the market by this irate soldier.
“We now decided that the soldier and the woman who brought him should be arrested by the Nigerian police.
“We lodged a complaint at the Okesha police station in Ado and also at the police post inside Fayose Market.”
The soldier was seen in a video made available by Emmanuel running after someone in the market.
With a knife dangling in his hand, he could be heard saying, “You dey fight army. Army no be police.“
“The police search and investigation revealed that the woman and the soldier came from Ilawe Ekiti to Ado-Ekiti,” said Emmanuel.
Emmanuel said the duo were arrested around 8:30 pm on Thursday and had been locked up at the state’s criminal investigation department (CID) in Ado.
When a call was put through to Sunday Abutu, the police spokesperson in the state, he promised to send the contact of an officer at the state CID. But he had not done so at the time of this publication.
