No fewer than eight people sustained multiple degrees of injuries as military men invaded Tungan-Maje community in the Gwagwalada area council of Abuja, on Sunday night, attacking Salihu Aliyu, the Galadima of the community and his family members.
Among those injured after being beaten by the power-drunk soldiers included; a 23-year-old student of the College of Education (COE) Zuba, Shemau Salihu, and the eldest son of the traditional ruler of Tungan-Maje, Abdulrahman Salihu.
One of the victims of the incident, Salihu narrated the ugly incident to Daily Trust on Monday.
Salihu said he was sitting in front of his house alongside his father and some of his friends when soldiers suddenly alighted from a Hilux van and descended on him with stick.
He said the soldiers divided themselves into groups, adding that while some were maltreating him, others walked into three houses to beat up the occupants.
“Even before then, there was a lady who came along with a man in mufti and pointed hand at me telling the man, ‘that is the brother',” he said.
He said while asking the lady what the problem was and who they were looking for, a hot argument ensued.
According to him, after those people left, the soldiers stormed the community.
He added that he had just finished observed Isha’i prayers when the military men stormed the area.
He said some commercial cyclists, who stopped to watch what was happening, were also assaulted.
“After the beating, the soldiers dragged us, including my father, into their Hilux and drove us to their barrack,” he said.
The Galadima of Tungan-Maje, Salihu Aliyu, who also spoke with Daily Trust, alleged that the soldiers held on to his shirt as he walked out of the mosque.
“I was coming out of the mosque when one of the soldiers grabbed my shirt and started hitting me with stick while some of them were shooting sporadically into the air,” he said.
The community leader further said the soldiers later dragged him on the floor into the Hilux van alongside seven others to the barracks in the area. He said after they were released, he proceeded to a clinic in the community for treatment.
The chief of Tungan-Maje, Alhaji Salihu Isiaku Na’ Annabi, confirmed the incident, saying he was at his palace when some of his subjects came to him to say soldiers had beaten up Galadima and some others.
“And what I did quickly was to put a call across to the Agora of Zuba, even though I couldn’t get him on phone but I got the Makama Karmi to alert him about the incident in my domain,” he said.
The monarch said though one of his sons later contacted the commander of the barracks at Tungan-Maje to report the incident, but the commander later pleaded with him and assured that he would investigate the matter.
The Nigerian Army has yet to react to the invasion.
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