A commercial bus driver, Mr. Moshood Olaniyi, was on Wednesday, allegedly attacked by a certain soldier at the Ojodu-Berger Motor Park in Lagos State.
The soldier, simply identified by his name tag as Emmanuel B.J., reportedly pounced on Olaniyi, flogging him with a horse whip before using his fists to inflict punches at him. According to the soldier, the bus driver stared at him with spite.
While he pounced on the driver, the soldier was said to have removed the vehicle’s key from the ignition and dragged Olaniyi down from the bus and battered him the more, despite pleas from commuters and passersby, The Punch reports.
Emmanuel threatened to kill Olaniyi, boasting that nobody would query him if he killed the driver. The soldier repeated this while he held Olaniyi’s waistband, dragging him on the floor and slapped him continuously.
The onlooking crowd was said to have asked the soldier to state the driver’s offence when he said, “Who does he think he is? I will kill him and nobody will query me. I have killed many people who are older than this idiot (Olaniyi) in the past and nobody queried me for that.
“The idiot attempted to hit me while reversing his vehicle and when I asked him why, he just sneered at me. If at all he is older than me, I don’t care. I will do to him what he will never forget for the rest of his life,” Emmanuel said, as he dragged Olaniyi to the park of commercial motorcycle operators, a distance of about 50 metres, before he released him after much pleading that lasted for about 45 minutes by eyewitnesses and other motorists.
The bus driver who could hardly open his mouth to talk because of his swollen lips after the soldier released him, was advised to seek medical attention due to the extent of the assault.
When asked, Olaniyi denied sneering at the soldier. He said he was reversing his vehicle when the soldier suddenly pounced on him.
Speaking on the alleged assault, , an eye witnesses, who simply identified himself as Festus, said it was the beating that drew his attention from where he was fixing some mechanical faults in his vehicle. He noted that the beating was too much and that he did not expect that Olaniyi could still stand on his feet after the soldier released him.
“I did not know the cause of the disagreement between Olaniyi and the soldier, but from what I saw, Olaniyi was sitting in his vehicle when the soldier started beating him. I didn’t know whether Olaniyi sneered at the soldier or not,” Festus said.
When contacted, the spokesperson for 82 Division, Nigerian Army, Lagos, Col. Kingsley Samuel said he was yet to confirm the identity of the soldier.
According to him, “We have to find out if Emmanuel is a genuine soldier who is not impersonating. This is one of the things we will investigate. And if he is a soldier, we will find out the unit he belongs to.
“I assure you that we will do our investigation. We don’t know the identity of the soldier. Lagos is a big community; anybody can put on army uniform and impersonate being a soldier. We have had cases of impersonation before, but if any personnel of the organisation I work with commits a crime of that nature, the person will be dealt with,” the spokesperson added.
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