My attention was drawn to the following story, on 6th November 2008:
On the third of November 2008 on Muhri Okunola Street, Victoria Island Lagos, the traffic was chaotic. A young lady (Uzoma Okere) driving home from work didn’t move her vehicle out of the way of a military convoy on time, resulting severe beatings by armed Nigerian Navy men. The convoy consisted of Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade’s personal Navy saloon car and his pilot truck, consisting of 6 armed bodyguards. The body guards in the process physically beat up several Price WaterHouse Coopers staff and destroyed cameras that were filming the event as it unfolded. The video clip was recorded from the PricewaterHouseCoopers office on a personal camera.
This is the lady’s side of the story, as reported by PM News:
She said the officers had asked her to stop since their boss was on the same road. ”I tried to move my car to the left side of the road but before I knew what was happening, one of them came out of a car in the convoy of the naval officer and whipped me while I was still seated in my car.
“I came out and I held on to the whip. Four other ratings rushed at me, held my hands and tried to put a handcuff on me. “One of them tore my shirt. I tried to adjust it and get back into the car but they whipped me,” she narrated, adding that a man who tried to challenge them, was hit on the head with the butt of a gun.
“They dragged out the other ladies in my car, both of them were pregnant women and beat them up. “While all this was going on, they pulled me into the compound where the Rear Admiral had driven into and I was screaming for someone to call my dad. One of my colleagues got the phone and called my father,” she said.
Professor Wole Soyinka was reported as saying:
“This abominable kind of conduct has got to stop. This animal conduct on the part of our uniformed services must end.”
ThisDay reports that President Umaru Yar’Adua (who preaches about the rule of law) has ordered that the Navy investigates the matter.
There is video evidence that should be admitted in court (or military tribunal). The men must all be sacked from the Navy and they must face justice. Shame on any man/woman who abuses their authority!
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