Nothing in many of our military personnel’s conducts has shown that that important institution has realised that the country is now under a democracy. And our reasons for sayingthis are legendary: an unidentified soldier in Kaduna State recently shot atruck driver, Abdul Saminu, who was conveying potatoes from Zaria to Kaduna for reportedly not yielding to his demand for N200 bribe. Saminu’s counter-offer of a bribe of N100 reportedly infuriated the trigger-happy soldier. Though the truck driver was lucky to have escaped with mere bulletwounds, it is high time these military men were lectured on civil-military relations.Also, residents of Omoyele Street in the Majidun area of Ikorodu, Lagos State, were reportedly dehumanised and dislodged by soldiers and officers of the Nigerian Navy sent there eight months ago to combat vandalisation of oil pipelines in the community. Apart from initial impounding of thousands of litres of petrol and arrest of culprits, the men in uniform reportedly seized about 20 houses on the street and closed shops under the guise of securing the area. Normalcy may elude the place for long except there is a quick official intervention.Two empirical cases of military brutality to the people of Majidun area will suffice: The first: Iyanu Chioma, a mother of three, gave a graphic picture of how her family members were compelled to relocate to Ogolonto areaafter the armed men ejected them fromtheir house: “This suffering is too much. Imagine my mother-in-law, my husband, my children and I living in one room. Feeding has been very difficult for us since we were sent out of our house in Omoyele. Those soldiers are now living in our house. My children cannot go to school again because there is no money. My husband is a commercial boat operator, while my mother-in-law had a shop, where she used to sell drinks. The military men closed the shop and also stopped my husband from operating on the river.”The second: Ola Omoyele painted a pathetic scenario of how they were dehumanised by the military men: “They told us to leave. I could only picka few of my property… The most annoying thing is that some elders on the street were also sent out. They should please allow us to move back to our houses.”The military’s reaction to the allegations by Colonel Mustapha Ankaof the 81 Division, was rather tepid: “Our officers are only there for anti-vandal operation. The residents are free to engage in lawful activities.”We condemn the conduct of the military in both situations. Quite a few other inhuman conducts, sometimes on the roads, have been unleashed on civilians and the earlier such is stopped, the better. The trigger-happy soldier in Kaduna must be fished out and duly punished for his criminal conduct. In Majidun, the military personnel were deployed to restore law and order and not to harass law-abiding citizens. Sadly, the fact that it takes months before the plight of the Majidun people was reported shows a failure on the part of civil society groups in the country. Most of them now see their platforms as a means of making cheap fortune.The occupation of others’ properties by soldiers without justifiable reason is illegal and this could not have been part of the brief given to the soldiers when they were drafted to Majidun. If the soldiers have reasons to believe that hoodlums and criminals still use the place as base, they should use all lawful means to flush them out. And, that, indeed, is what we expected the military authorities to say instead of trying to paint the picture that there is no truth in the allegations made by thedisplaced residents. We call on the military authorities to ensure that the soldiers are withdrawn from the place as soon as normalcy is restored there.
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/military-rascality/