Category: Hardball

  • ‘Tiger Base’

    ‘Tiger Base’

    When about 35 civil society organisations (CSOs) jointly petition the Senate to investigate “the alarming activities” of a police unit in the country, their allegations should be investigated.  Their petition, titled ‘Urgent Call for the Senate’s Investigation into Human Rights Violations by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command, Tiger Base,’ was intended to “draw urgent attention to the alarming allegations of human rights abuses and corruption involving the Tiger Base, Owerri.”

    The petitioners said the allegations against the “notorious” police unit include “unlawful detention, torture, coercion, and extortion” and “reflect a disturbing pattern of misconduct that must be addressed swiftly and decisively.”  It was set up “to tackle incidents of violent crimes, but the activities of the unit bear no resemblance to the requirements of the law or professional policing standards,” they stated.

    To support their petition, the CSOs attached to the document “a serialised investigative journalism report,” which they said “reveals shocking accounts by victims, survivors, relatives of victims and survivors, activists and human rights defenders and witnesses of egregious human rights atrocities, corruption and flagrant abuse of power sustained by impunity and the failure of the police and police oversight authorities to investigate allegations and ensure accountability and justice.”

    According to them, the reported incidents “indicate a fundamental failure of the police to uphold the law, protect citizens, or adhere to ethical standards. The culture of impunity that allows these excesses to persist is detrimental to public trust in law enforcement and justice in Nigeria.”

    Read Also: AGAINST ALL ODDS: How D’Tigers picked  FIBA AfroBasket Championship ticket

    The petitioners claimed that “Several petitions and reports about the atrocities going on at Tiger Base have been ignored and the atrocities continue unchecked and unabated,” and alleged that there were “similar police tactical units across various states.”

    They argued that “The failure of the authorities to investigate cases to ensure that perpetrators are brought to account and victims gain access to justice sustains the atmosphere of impunity that allows rampant egregious police abuse.”

    For instance, they stated,  “the silence by the police authorities over the findings from the police investigation ordered by the Inspector-General of Police into allegations of arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, torture, extrajudicial killings and organ harvesting brought against some police operatives attached to the Anambra State Rapid Response Squad (former SARS Awkuzu) by a whistleblower bears testimony to the disposition of police authorities to cover up the atrocities of their personnel rather than ensuring transparent investigations and taking appropriate actions to demonstrate that the police hierarchy is not complicit or does not condone or cover up atrocities.”

    The Senate should treat this petition with the utmost seriousness. Also, the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has a duty to look into the matter because it is in the public domain.    

  • ‘Japa’ desperation on steroids

    ‘Japa’ desperation on steroids

    Desperation by some Nigerians to leave this country for ‘greener pastures’ is getting more intense by the day. It is now such that a citizen reportedly walked in to the Police and begged to be declared wanted in support of an asylum bid.

    Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, recently shared the story of how a fella made the shocking request of him. In a post on his X handle, he narrated: “’Please, declare me wanted!’ I was stupefied. I blinked and looked at him again. ‘What did you say,’ I asked.

    “’Please, I want you to declare me wanted,’ he repeated.

    “’Why do you want to be declared wanted,’ I inquired, amused.

    ‘Actually, I am applying for asylum at XYZ embassy. During the interview, I told them that I am being persecuted to the point of being declared wanted by the police.

    ‘They now asked for evidence of the ‘wanted’ declaration. I can easily do the artwork but I know they will come and verify. That is why I want it from the source.’”

    Read Also: Immigration arrests 51 irregular migrants near Abuja

    The Police, obviously, could not have obliged such request. But the sheer audacity of making it to the security agency is confounding. A man was telling a boldfaced lie before the world against his country, and he was asking the security establishment in charge of civil law-keeping to abet him. Just how further could desperation get! Besides, this fellow didn’t seem to have thought through his bid. If the Police declared you wanted, it would be for a criminal offence; and it is unlikely the intended country of asylum would simply throw their doors open to a criminal fugitive without ascertaining that his purported crime is either wrongly alleged or it is domesticated – that is, it is not a crime elsewhere even if so in Nigeria.

    The emigration syndrome, known as ‘Japa,’ has seen many Nigerians throwing caution to the wind in their frantic bid to leave the country. And they are leaving in droves. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in December, last year, said no fewer than 260,000 Nigerians approached it for assistance to emigrate from the country in 2023. But the agency also raised the alarm that many emigrants were getting stranded in destination countries, and advised that those wishing to leave the shores of Nigeria should do so by legitimate means and on sound advice.

    That is the crux: emigrate by lawful means and after fully weighing the cost to avoid getting stranded, as the grass is not always greener on the other side. But we must also hope Nigeria soon becomes conducive for living to dissuade ‘Japaing’.

     First published February 2, 2024

  • Ann Kio Briggs’s ‘truth’

    Ann Kio Briggs’s ‘truth’

    Madam Ann Kio Briggs, famed Ijaw nationalist and Niger Delta environmentalist, just announced a queer theory of “truth”, which she must tell President Bola Tinubu, for halting looming anarchy in her native Rivers. 

    But she couldn’t tell Governor Siminilayi Fubara, who worked tooth and nail to rush Rivers to its present sorry pass, that same “truth”.  Odd, isn’t that?

    Perhaps her “truth” always falls flat on Ijaw ears, but firmly registers on others’, outside her beloved Ijaw conclave?

    Here is yet another troubling tragi-comedy from Rivers elders. Instead of telling Fubara the “truth” — holy Moses!  That word again! — they pelted his ears with clannish lies: sweet but noxious music to the tragic Fubara, until things blew up in his face.

    Still, emergency rule has gifted Fubara a rare chance to politically live again.  He did enough self-harm for the Wike forces to impeach him, even if the “Ijaw” ensemble were banking on their “youths” to shake things up at the pipelines, and send darling Rivers into a tailspin.  But would anarchy have rescued Fubara?

    Now, to x-ray Madam Briggs’s “truth”: “I cannot be afraid at my age now at 72, I cannot be afraid of telling even President Tinubu that he is wrong because the president was born in 1952 and I was born in 1952,” she sad in a video which Symfoni TV shared.  “If other people are afraid to tell him the truth because he has appointed them,” — a dig at Nyesom Wike, FCT minister? — “I can understand that, but he hasn’t appointed me.  I’m speaking on behalf of my people, my region, myself and my family. So, please, there is no anarchy anywhere in Rivers State.”

    Yeah, right!  But wasn’t that why emergency rule was imposed — to forestal anarchy?  Or should the president have waited for anarchy before acting?

    Read Also: Police rescue 21 kidnapped victims, recover N4.8m ransom

    All the stuff about being the same age with the president is emotional blather.  They have nothing to do with the substance.  Neither does her play to the gallery that she isn’t a presidential appointee.

    She isn’t Fubara’s appointee, either.  But, did she ever caution Fubara — even while far older — her excitable “Ijaw” governor, with his surfeit of childish pranks, as telling Ijaw “youths” to be calm and await further “instructions”?

    Did she ever warn him against his unalterable constitutional crime of spending public money without parliamentary authorization throughout 2024, a recklessness he had also essayed for 2025 before the Supreme Court put him in his place?  Did she utter even a moan when Fubara demolished the Rivers House of Assembly?

    Truth, indeed!  This Briggsian truth — pardon that coinage — must be of some exotic hue!

    The truth is Briggs and co had jumped on the Ijaw bandwagon, hailing every outrage from the Fubara camp, though the Wike camp too had own issues.  Another sorry voice on that front was the late Edwin Clark.  But at least, Clark was from Delta. Madam Briggs is from Rivers.

    Now, Clark is dead, but the misled Fubara lives to hold the short end of the stick!  But it’s poetic justice that Madam Briggs is alive to see the mess Rivers has become!

    Ann Kio Briggs has no truth to tell anyone.  If she had any, she would have told Fubara; and Rivers wouldn’t have been in its current bind.  Truth, indeed!

  • Scary state actors

    Scary state actors

    He missed the point. The Chief of Defence Civil-Military Relations at the Defence Headquarters, Rear Admiral Olusanya Bankole, speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on March 28, said: “People should not feel scared when they see people in uniform; the men in uniform are meant to protect you.”

    According to him, “This message is being reinforced at institutions like the Depot in Zaria, the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), and the Nigerian Defence College (NDC).” However, it is one thing to communicate a message; and it is another thing whether the targets get the message. Two recent incidents involving military personnel suggested that the message is yet to sink in.

    He commented on the March 6 attack on the corporate headquarters of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) in Alausa, Lagos, by Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel from the Sam Ethnan Air Force Base in Ikeja.  He said the incident “is being viewed seriously at the Defence Headquarters and headquarters of the Nigerian Air Force,” adding, “Any necessary sanctions will be imposed. There is zero tolerance for such behaviour.” 

    The attack had followed the expiration of the NAF’s ultimatum to the company to restore their power supply which was disconnected because of a debt of N4billion. The company said it stopped supplying electricity to the base after failed efforts to make the debtors pay their debt.  A viral video showed “the attack, the height of vandalism, and the brutality that took place,” a report said.

    Read Also: Rivers: APC chieftain begs Tinubu to reduce state of emergency period

    It was a clear case of abuse of power. The NAF employed bullying tactics instead of paying up.  It is surprising that they allowed the debt to rise to the stated amount, and still believed they should continue to enjoy electricity supply without clearing the debt. 

    About a week later, on March 14, a similar incident happened when Nigerian Army personnel attacked the Badagry Injection Substation of the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC). The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) said the “invasion,” involved “overzealous military personnel.” The union also said the attackers “abducted two members of our staff and took them to their Barracks at The Nigerian Army, 15th Field Engineers Regiment, Topo Town, Badagry, Lagos,” adding, “Their claim was poor electricity supply to their Barracks in the last week.” The abducted employees were said to have been tortured and brutalised before they were released. The NUEE had explained that a transmission upgrade and a feeder failure were responsible for the electricity supply issue.

    The violent reaction of the soldiers was inexcusable. It is possible that they were encouraged by the earlier violence of the NAF personnel who attacked IKEDC without consequences.

    These incidents show why it can be said that Rear Admiral Bankole missed the point:  People will feel scared when state actors are scary.  

  • El-Rufai’s back-duty accounting

    El-Rufai’s back-duty accounting

    There is often a need for Malam El-Rufai to seek attention, even for the wrong reason.  When he is not goofing about the state of the APC, he is drawing ire from the youth of his new home Social Democratic Party – where he claims to be a member. But he is neither a tenant nor even landlord. He seems to be a squatter. He does even have shelter, and that makes his call for birds of the same feather who want to vacate their nests to be wary. They don’t want to move from a half-home – that is, APC – to homeless like him.

    Now, he is looking for new trouble where he used to call home. He charged recently that his successor has dropped the internally generated revenue levels from the heights he left it. Heights? He even came up with a figure for colour. But he got a mouthful from a man who should know. Jerry Adams, the executive chairman of Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KSIRS) has rolled out the figures and challenged the mouthy ex-governor who defected without an earthquake. He said El-Rufai acted based on” limited and inaccurate information, or perhaps deliberately chosen to distort facts.”

    El Rufai says he left with an average of N7 billion a month and that it has dropped to two billion naira. For a man who is yet to answer for a slew of allegations about money unaccounted for, he sure has gumption. It is an old tactic he deploys often. It is now too familiar and has lost its power to impress. He has shown he has diminished in imagination for new ways to divert attention from his time in office.

    Hardball hopes El Rufai can match Adams figure for figure, and logic for logic. What would he say to Adams’ assertion that his highest figure while in office was N59 billion a year, amounting to N4.9 billion a month.

    What would he say to Adams’ assertion that from 2019 to 2022, the IGR came from one-off inflows, including sale of government properties to the tune of N45 billion. “When these one-off inflows are discounted monthly, the revenue collection during the period paints a different picture,” state Adams.

    Read Also: Tinubu to mark 73rd birthday with special prayers

    So, he was boosting figures by dismantling and auctioning what he met the ground, not what he created.

    Then he lays bare the figures under Governor Uba Sani, and he is free to dispute the figures, with evidence of course. Adams said in 2023, the state recorded N62.48 billion and in 2024, N71 billion and these will average N5.2 billion and N6.0 billion monthly in IGR.

    For 2025, already, it seems to be even rosier. Here Adams. “For January and February 2025 alone,” wrote Adams, “Kaduna State has already collected N7.46 billion and N6.68 billion, respectively, totaling N14.16 billion in just two months – without any back-duty recoveries.”

    El Rufai also alleged that the government transferred N100 million to an unknown individual. Adams counters that every transaction undertakes the process of the Treasury Single Account. No anonymity. Over to you, former governor!

     He who alleges must prove. It makes little sense to throw figures, especially when those who live in glass houses are not wary to throw stones.

    The problem with El Rufai, it seems, is that he is becoming a loner, more and more. Not even the new coalition of frustrated men he is looking for will trust him, especially when the man he is working with, for now, is Atiku Abubakar who knowsa him too well.

  • Repeated jailbreaks

    Repeated jailbreaks

    How did 12 inmates escape from the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Koton-Karfe, Kogi State, on March 24? Their escape was said to have happened after they succeeded in opening the padlocks in a section of the facility.  They were said to have left the prison through a collapsed window.

    Witnesses were reported saying the escapees had tied up two prison officers. Tragically, another officer, Senior Correctional Assistant Shuaibu King David, was killed. According to the Nigerian Correctional Service(NCoS), he had “bravely stood his ground in an effort to prevent the escape of inmates and protect the integrity of the custodial centre.”

    The NCoS said five of the fleeing inmates had been recaptured, and efforts were ongoing to apprehend the others.  The Controller-General of the NCoS, Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche, ordered a comprehensive investigation into the incident and a security audit across correctional facilities nationwide. 

    Also, the Kogi State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Kingsley Fanwo, said: “The theory that the inmates escaped through the tower without causing any structural damage raises serious concerns. This calls for a thorough investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the escape, arrest the fleeing inmates, and identify possible saboteurs within the system.”

    Notably, Koton-Karfe Custodial Centre is reported to have experienced at least three jailbreaks in the last 10 years. In July 2016, 13 inmates escaped from the correctional centre. In October 2019, 122 inmates escaped after a flood damaged a section of the facility. The latest incident further demonstrates the need for improved security at the facility.

    Read Also: Nigeria happens to me

    Escapees from Nigeria’s correctional centres in 2021 and 2022, who have not been recaptured, were reported to be about 4,000. This is alarming. Also disturbing is that this could be a conservative estimate.

    The estimated 4,000 escapees, from at least eight jailbreaks across the country in 2021 and 2022, who are said to be at large, pose a serious danger to society as many of them may well be dangerous criminals.  The series of jailbreaks in the two years further exposed poor security at the country’s correctional centres.

    Inmates on the loose create an atmosphere of danger, which compounds security challenges in the country. It also defeats the essence of justice.

    Last year, the NCoS had bragged that there were no jailbreaks and prison attacks in 2023, attributing the “achievement” to “the effectiveness of the top-level security measures that have been diligently upheld in our custodial centres across the nation.”  However, the latest jailbreak does not suggest that such incidents are a thing of the past.

  • Waffling a la Jonathan

    Waffling a la Jonathan

    What did former President Goodluck Jonathan say on Rivers emergency rule? Nothing, save verbal waffling.  That painfully reminds all of his indecisive and best-forgotten Presidency.

    That waffling was classic Jonathan! 

    Indeed, that intervention — or was it, really? — echoed that famous quip by Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest US presidents, ever: “Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than speak and remove all doubt”!

    The Jonathan Presidency wasn’t great — indeed, about the worst in this 4th Republic.  His own waffling, plus systemic wreckage that accrued well ahead of his tenure, no thanks to imperial President Olusegun Obasanjo, conspired to make Jonathan a tragic fall guy, for years of PDP political sins. 

    But Jonathan clawed at some salvation by stoically accepting his presidential defeat.  That can’t be said of many of the power noise makers today. That rare nobility earned him today’s post-office redemption.  Nigerians are not ungrateful for that grace.

    That’s why Jonathan must always be wary of loose talks, unbefitting of a former president.  Unlike his take, it’s no secret that former presidents all over the world have often been wary of political commentaries.  He should have kept his cool.

    The only one that balks that convention is Obasanjo, and he does so because he knew he blew up rare historic opportunities. He feels his only route to relevance is to de-market all of his successors, military or civilian.  As he has found out, even as he wars against his troubled conscience, he progressively devalues himself.

    But back to Rivers. Jonathan’s take, with his circumlocutory inexactitude, was well and truly tragic.  Did the former president clearly form the concepts in his mind before blurting?  Or it was deliberate mischief to make everyone — legislature, executive and judiciary — share equal blames, in a cynical show of jiving, yet saying absolutely nothing?

    Read Also: Minister inspects NAHCON’s health facilities in Saudi Arabia

    Pray, even if both the legislature and the executive are game for ex-presidential ranting — peopled by hustling politicians — shouldn’t a wise Jonathan have been wary of the judiciary?  Does he want to be quoted as suggesting the even the Supreme Court, the very apex of the judiciary, could be on the take?  Classic Jonathanian naïveté!

    Still, talking of taking stands: what did Jonathan do to caution Siminilayi Fubara, his fellow Ijaw man, on his well-chronicled gubernatorial outlawry, some of them even documented in the Supreme Court verdict?

    But even from the Ijaw tribal perspective, of the “monster” Nyesom Wike, subjecting a co-Ijaw to so much executive pain — some fib! — who built Wike into today’s so-called power gargoyle?  Was it not Jonathan’s wife that first used him as battling ram against Rotimi Amaechi, in the build-up to Jonathan’s last presidential days?

    Did Jonathan ever caution Dame Patience Faka Jonathan, aka Mama Peace, who nevertheless loved to wage war against then Governor Amaechi, as authentic Okrika, Rivers girl?  Did Jonathan stop the ex-First Lady’s subversion of Amaechi’s government, for which she pressed the then Minister Wike into (dis)service?

    Jonathan was mum when all these went on.  His silence was deafening at Fubara’s random and flagrant outlawry.  But now, he just found his voice — when the President imposed emergency rule to halt the drift and save lives!

  • PDP and ‘homelessness’

    PDP and ‘homelessness’

    From the look of things, Nigeria’s former ruling party and leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), may well have itself to blame for its current situation, which can be described as “homelessness.”

    The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), under FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, revoked the party’s land title “in respect of Plot No 243 within Central Area (A00) District, Abuja,” where it is building a new national secretariat. The FCTA also revoked the land title in respect of Wadata Plaza, Zone 5, Abuja, where the party’s national headquarters is presently located.

    PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba said the action was “highly condemnable,” adding that “It is aimed at stifling opposition in this country and a drive toward totalitarianism. It is a threat to democracy.”

    This was a stock response, and a baseless politicisation of the matter. The FCTA explained that it had revoked a total of 4,794 land titles, which were in default of ground rent payment for 10 years and above. It said: “This is in contravention of the terms and conditions of grant of the rights of Occupancy, in line with the provisions of Section 28, Subsections 5(a) and (b) of the Land Use Act.”

    Those affected include government institutions, private organisations and individuals. Importantly, PDP cannot claim to be a target and play victim because, according to FCTA, it had failed to pay its annual ground rents for 20 years, from 2006 to 2025, despite numerous reminders.

    The revocation letter, dated March 13, stated that the property had reverted to the FCTA due to the PDP’s failure to comply with the terms of the Right of Occupancy agreement, adding that the FCT would take immediate possession of the property. This is concerning the party’s land in the Central Area, Abuja, where its new national secretariat is under construction.

    Read Also: Leakage on PPMC pipeline causes explosion in Rivers – YEAC-Nigeria

    Regarding the present location of its national headquarters, Wadata Plaza, Zone 5, Wuse, Abuja, which is also affected by the action, FCTA explained that the party was a tenant or occupier, and the revocation notice had been served on the title holder, one Samaila Maman Ofi, “at his Kaduna address – the address on record.” It said: “On that property, 28 years of ground rent is being owed, from 1998 to 2025.”  The debt is more than N7million.

    So, PDP not only lost the title to its own property in the Central Area, its landlord also lost the title to the party’s rented property in Wuse.  This means it is “homeless.”

    As things stand, it is difficult to understand the PDP’s finger-pointing. The FCTA said it “made numerous publications in national newspapers and announcements on broadcast media since 2023, calling on defaulters to pay up all outstanding bills and ground rents.”  The affected defaulters could have avoided the revocation of their titles if they had done the right thing.

  • Fuel: Why this Naira-dollar yo-yo?

    Fuel: Why this Naira-dollar yo-yo?

    If we allow it, petroleum downstream, the fuel sector that powers the economy, could soon follow cement, with an oligopoly banding together to sell the product at whatever price they like, even if cement’s raw materials are mostly sourced locally.

    So, before petrol, diesel and other auto and machine fuels go the cement way, the Federal Government must act fast, now that it can still be in charge, and save the citizens from wilful exploitation.

    Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the biggest single player in petroleum downstream, just announced it is, for now, stopping sale of its petroleum products in Naira — and for good logic.  Dangote claims that since the government is tardy in its crude-in-Naira sales policy, it would also sell its refined products in dollar, since it now buys crude in dollar.

    This argument is unassailable.  Why this tardiness to enter into a new agreement, after the first six-month deal had lapsed?  When the news first filtered, Zach Adedeji, the main man in charge of that policy, poured chilled water on it.

    Read Also: Nigerian Idol return for season 10 as Iyanya joins judges

    Still, shouldn’t the government have walked its talk, and post-haste put in place a new deal, but now for a longer spell?  Apparently, the government side has dithered — thus prompting the Dangote announcement, and all its dire economic consequences.  A shock therapy?

    Even with the fuel pump price coming down, it’s still too high for many — if not most — households.  Also, industries bleed with this high cost of energy, with earnings plateaued, even with reported falling inflation.  So, any rise in pump prices again would blight the economy, and fuel another round of punishing inflation.

    Petrol is too critical to the economy to admit any tardiness on the side of policy makers.  Which is why Zach Adedeji and his team must scramble together a fresh deal before things spiral out of control.  They should act — and now!

    So far, in moderating pump prices, Dangote has generally been a force for good.  Each time, it had forced pricing down, with NNPC Ltd, the government’s own player, scrambling after it.

    But it could easily turn a force for bad.  If others scramble after Dangote to cut pump prices, would they do so too, if it were to flare prices?  If they did, the cement nightmare would dawn!

    That would be extremely bad news.  The logic of local refining is that fuels would be far cheeper than imported cargo.  That’s common sense, and it takes no especial acuity in economics to realize that.

    Petrol is too strategic to the economy to be left at the mercy of investors’ greed.  That’s why the regulatory agencies must take full charge when they still can — and it’s absolutely no to any trace of laissez-faire on the part of the Federal Government in this season of great economic peril.

  • Bullies in military uniforms

    Bullies in military uniforms

    Two separate attacks by military men on two different electricity distribution companies in Lagos State within one week spoke volumes about the lawlessness of the attackers. This is condemnable.

    On March 6, Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel from the Sam Ethnan Air Force Base in Ikeja attacked the corporate headquarters of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) in Alausa, Lagos. They were reported to have been “loaded in military trucks, several OP-MESA vehicles, and others.”

    The attack followed the expiration of the NAF’s ultimatum to the company to restore their power supply which was disconnected because of a debt of N4billion. The company said it stopped supplying electricity to the base after failed efforts to make the debtors pay their debt.  A viral video showed “the attack, the height of vandalism, and the brutality that took place,” a report said.  The incident happened around 7:40 am.

    The NAF should pay up instead of employing bullying tactics. This is a clear case of abuse of power.  It is surprising that they allowed the debt to rise to the stated amount, and still believed they should continue to enjoy electricity supply without clearing the debt. 

    Read Also: Exhibitors explore opportunities for manufacturing in Nigeria

    On March 14, a similar incident happened when Nigerian Army personnel attacked the Badagry Injection Substation of the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC). The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) said the “invasion,” at 1.00am,   involved “overzealous military personnel.” The union also said the attackers “abducted two members of our staff and took them to their Barracks at The Nigerian Army, 15th Field Engineers Regiment, Topo Town, Badagry, Lagos,” adding, “Their claim was poor electricity supply to their Barracks in the last week.” The abducted employees were said to have been tortured and brutalised before they were released at 4 am.

    The NUEE explained that “Eko Electricity Management had earlier given public notice to all customers, and proper information about the ongoing TCN Upgrade in Agbara was duly communicated to their commanding officer, Lt Col S. Lawan. Efforts were made to restore power to the barracks but the feeder went off due to excess load.”

    The violent reaction of the soldiers is inexcusable. It is possible that they were encouraged by the earlier violence of the NAF personnel who attacked IKEDC without consequences.

    The two incidents show the military in a bad light. The military authorities should be embarrassed.