By Daniel Ayantoye
Two unidentified soldiers on Monday allegedly descended on a man identified as Kazeem Abdulraheem beating him to a coma along Niger road, for owing their friend the sum of N15,000.
According to an eye witness, who identified himself as Afeez Jimoh the soldiers stormed the shop of Kazeem and after holding a brief discussion with him they pounced on the victim until he could hardly breathe.
“It happened that we just saw one of the soldiers beating him, and they later went upstairs after been called by Alhaji Akande but as you can see everyone is waiting down here but the soldiers have refused to come down,” Jimoh disclosed.
Another eye witness, who identified himself as simply Malik said, “I don’t know when it started but it is too bad for somebody to think he can just enter our community and beat up one of us just because they are soldiers.”
However, the youths who were waiting patiently for the soldiers to descend from the building were however prevailed upon by policemen from the ‘C’ Division to allow peace to reign.
Speaking with the victim (Kazeem) at Bawa Hospital, Niger road, where he was admitted, he said, “One of my ex-apprentices, Toyin bought an aluminium material from me and left it in my shop for over one year now.
“On a particular day, I was about eating at my shop when he came that we does not want the material anymore but the money because the owner of the job had brought soldiers to him and that they were waiting outside.
“Meanwhile the material belonged to my boss, so I told him we should go to his shop, on getting there, we did not meet him at his shop. I had to call him but he asked us to wait, but one of the soldiers said he gave me only 10 minutes for the man to appear.
“After waiting for some time, they started talking, so I felt I should just give him the money. I told them then that I should go and get my ATM card but the soldiers refused and told me to kneel down and that I should start frog jump, then he started flogging me with Iron rod, kicked me with his boot and pushed me inside the gutter.”
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Okasanmi said the matter has been resolved.
“The matter is between a soldier and some people. The police came in to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order and eventually the soldier was handed over to the military service”
