Abuja irate soldiers nearly killed us — Construction workers

Before , it was the issue of extra-judicial killing or police brutality that was so rampant.

Today, it is like some members of the armed forces have joined the act, brutalising those they are paid to protect.

Recently, pandemonium engulfed Kabayi area of Mararaba, Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, following sporadic shooting by some soldiers because two officers in mufti, after failing to identify themselves, were prevented from passing through a road that was blocked, due to construction work.

The incident compelled workers of CGC Nigeria Ltd, a Chinese construction company, in Mararaba, to abandon their work and run for their lives, after sustaining various degrees of injury from the soldiers.

One of the workers, Joshua Dauda, from Maurwa tribe in Southern-Kaduna, Kaduna State, while speaking to Sunday Vanguard, said his being alive was by divine intervention, as one of the soldiers cocked the gun, pointing it on his head and ready to blow it off, after beating him mercilessly.

“He was annoyed that his Oga collected the gun from him, shouting, ‘ You for allow me make I blow him off, this bloody civilian,” Joshua recollected on his sickbed at the Kabayi City Hospital.

Narrating his ordeal, Joshua said the day began like any other day at the Kabayi Road linking Aso ‘C’ Road in Mararaba.

The road had been under construction since last year, but, sometimes, the company, after seeking understanding of the Nigeria Police, blocks the road, to avoid accident while construction work is going on with heavy duty machines.

On the fateful day, according to him, the company blocked the road as usual with a policeman and some workers monitoring the blockage, to prevent road users from running into the machines.

He said people approached them, and they told them to take another route, as it was not safe for people to compete with ‘working caterpillars’.

The whole work was going on smoothly, according to him, until the arrival of two-young men carried by a motorcyclist ‘Okada’.

Joshua said that the police officer told the ‘Okada-man’ that there was no thorough fare, as construction work was going on, but the two passengers on the Okada (soldiers in mufti), instead of identifying themselves for them to know that they were security operatives, ordered the ‘Okada-man’ to crush the policeman, who was in front of the motorcycle, an action that infuriated other workers.

“There was an ‘Okada-man’ carrying two people. They didn’t wear uniform and they did not identify themselves. The policeman blocked them and they told the ‘Okada-man’ to crush the policeman,” the construction worker went on..

“When the policeman held the Okada-man, they all moved to beat the policeman and my colleagues moved against them.

“So, one of them (solders in mufti) started beating one of my boys. The boy was bleeding and he was still hitting him. I now rushed to him (soldier in mufti), and said, ‘Oga, you are beating this man. Look at him, he is bleeding, will you kill him?’

“He (soldier in mufti) said, do I know who he was. I said I didn’t know him because he didn’t identify himself. He said, ‘ Okay, you will know me now’. So, he pounced on me and my boys resisted him, telling him that I was not ready to fight him, but to make peace.

“The other man ran away and mobilized other soldiers, and they started shooting. That was when we knew they were soldiers.

“The other soldier who had been with us all the while said I was the one that mobilized my boys to attack them, because I told him not to kill the boy.

“He rushed into the vehicle brought by the soldiers that had been mobilised, brought out a gun, hit me with the gun and I fell down, and he was still kicking me on the ground. Then he cocked the gun and put it on my head to pull the trigger, but his ‘oga’ that wore uniform rushed to him, and pulled the gun away from my head, raised it up and released bullets to the air.”

When Sunday Vanguard contacted the Mararaba Police Station, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Superintendent Emega John, confirmed the incident, describing it as a ‘minor issue’ that had been resolved.