No fewer than 500 hundred women on Wednesday staged a protest at Ovre-Eku, Iwevbo Community in Delta state over a land which had allegedly been in dispute for years between Edo and Delta states.
The women in their hundreds, wearing black clothing, had converged at Eku community from where they marched to the disputed land, carrying a coffin covered in palm fronds to express their displeasure over alleged sale of the land to an oil company.
During the protest at about 10:45a.m, Vanguard gathered that about 10 soldiers accosted the women and directed them to vacate the site.
The women had insisted on being addressed by a representative of the company when the soldiers unleashed mayhem on them, flogged them mercilessly and used boots on them.
A senior military officer identified to be the Unit Commander at the site, Lt. E. D Oworobo, who was furious at their insistence, cocked his riffle, threatened to shoot and then ordered his men to flog the women.
The soldiers chased the fleeing women into adjoining bushes at the site.
The aged among the women, some in their 80s, who could not run, were trampled on by the soldiers and others flogged with tree stems.
Meanwhile, the soldiers again went berserk at about 11:30a.m., invaded parts of Ovre-Eku community, destroyed nine motorcycles and 13 bicycles, while residents of the community fled, following the arrival of the soldiers in a white Toyota Hilux van.
When contacted, the Unit Commander, Oworobo described the reporter as an “idiot and a madman.”
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