Residents of Mile 12 allegedly forced to sit on broken bottles by soldiers

Following the 6am-6pm curfew imposed on Agiliti in Mile 12 area of Lagos, residents have called out the activities of the military officers deployed to the area who they claim are brutalising residents, forcing many to sit on roads littered with broken bottles, frog-jump, or sing for at least 30 minutes, before they are released to go home.

The curfew was imposed to curb the clashes between the Hausa and Yoruba communities in that area of Lagos. PUNCH reports that the residents, mostly workers, sometimes return from work past the curfew time, and so are being manhandled by the military for this.

“We were asked to sit on the road littered with broken bottles,” a nurse Ms Kemi Onaolapo who works in Ikeja, said. “They said we should be singing songs, both Christian and Islamic songs. As we were doing that, they commanded us to hold ourselves by the waist. A married man held my waist. I could not resist. I also held a man’s waist in front of me.

“We did that for 45 minutes, just 15 minutes before the curfew began. They shouted at us to run after the exercise. To another group, they commanded them to ‘frog jump’ for the whole time. Different people were doing different humiliating things. These soldiers’ excesses are too much. They should just search us and let us go.”

Another resident, a bank employee, said he got to the area at past 6:30pm, and was not spared by the military officers.

“The curfew starts 7pm, but the soldiers have made it 6pm,” he said. “But what I could not understand is why they are torturing people. I was driving, so they just searched my car and let me go. But I was angry when I saw men in suit sitting on the road. What sort of rubbish is that?”

And on a different day, on Thursday, he had to bribe an officer with N5,000 before he was allowed in.

“They make people like us to sweep the road for 30 minutes every morning before they let us go,” said another bank employee Femi Sanya, who works in Victoria Island.

However, some people have noted the double standard meted out by the soldiers, as the Hausa neighbourhood are not treated same way.

“The soldiers are discriminatory in this regard,” said a trader Priscilia Oke. “I want to plead with Governor Ambode to look into this matter. It is what we have been passing through since last week. Their excesses are getting too much. Imagine them making a married man to hold my waist and sing. They need to be stopped. There is now peace in the area.”