Fuming soldiers beat up amusement park workers in Lagos before detaining them in vans. Abidemi Oderinlo and his colleagues had their concert interrupted by angry soldiers on the night of December 30, 2017.The soldiers had them bundled into a waiting van after handing them the beating of their lives, Oderinlo tells Pulse.“We were having a concert in Ibafo, opposite MFM (Mountain of Fire and Miracles ministry) prayer city. We had fireworks and after the fireworks, I stepped out of the office with an elderly friend of the office who was coming out to pick someone. We got outside and we saw people running helter-skelter”, Oderinlo begins. “We saw soldiers chasing a particular guy and they were kicking him all over the place. Because I’m a staff of the company and the person being brutalised was my customer, I approached the scene and that particular soldier eventually released the guy to me.“Then one of my colleagues behind him, a female, started telling me that it’s not only that guy, that they had packed a lot of people who were ticketing concert goers, into the van”. Licensed fireworksOderinlo narrated that he was soon next in the van before he knew it.“One of the soldiers just jumped out of the van and said ‘shey na because I nor arrest you?’…he was becoming increasingly aggressive and wanted to attack the girl. And I was like, Oga what is happening? Calm down ni.“The soldier just pounced on me. Two other guys joined him. They started kicking and beating me. They dragged me to the back of their van”.Oderinlo tells Pulse that the Bale of Ibafo was probably the one who alerted the soldiers to the area as fireworks from the concert blazed through the still Lagos night. However, Oderinlo added that the soldiers should have been better informed because permission had been sought from the police for the fireworks illuminating the Ibafo skyline.“For the concert, we had a lot of security men. For the purpose of the fireworks, we registered everything. The fireworks had all the licensing and documentation that needed to be done. The bomb squad of the police from Lagos and Ogun were at the venue, we had over 60 bouncers, bodyguards, lots of mobile policemen, dog handlers. The whole place was totally secure.ALSO READ: Making phone calls at filling stations can now land you in jail“So, I was not scared when I saw the soldiers. There was nothing illegal we had done. Soldiers weren’t supposed to be at the location. That’s why I approached them. Only to discover that they were unwanted guests. They were just there to scatter the whole place. “The elderly man I came out with, started trying to calm them down. He would later talk to someone who I later found out was a lieutenant..Lt Abdulwasiu Agboola. He was the one who led the team. There was a DSP of the mobile police unit on the scene as well. They were going to drive us away when the police fired warning shots and told the soldiers that they were on duty and that if anyone was going to arrest anyone, that person has to go through them. “The whole situation got messy. I sat down at the back of the van because I didn’t want to get caught in a crossfire. Shots were being fired and stuff like that. So, I just sat down. At the end of the day, Lt Agboola came down from the van, followed the man inside the premises of the company”.Apology not acceptedThe soldiers would later apologise for their actions but Oderinlo is yet to get over the beatings he received on the night.He sustained injuries to his body and was immediately rushed to the staff clinic for first aid on the night. “Whether they came to apologise or not cannot reverse what was done before. Anything could have happened. People could have been killed. Imagine that the mobile police officers were not on ground to stop them from abducting us, anything else could have happened. They could have carried us away, shot us dead and paraded the corpses as those of terrorists or something. “It is something that I believe shouldn’t be swept under the carpet. Normally, everyone keeps quiet and hands things like this over to God, but that isn’t my style”. When Pulse rang a senior army officer in Lagos, he corroborated Oderinlo’s version of events, before adding; “It was a misunderstanding, plain and simple. We did apologise and I think that should be the end of the story”.Army spokesperson, Col Sani Usman, wasn’t immediately available for comments.
