Some soldiers attached to the 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala Barracks, Abeokuta, Ogun State, have allegedly tortured a staff of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, over ‘poor power’ supply.
The soldiers, numbering about six and reportedly led by one Major Musa, stormed the IBEDC substation at Olumo area of the state and met one of them, Salau Adekunle, the substation’s distribution officer, on duty.
Adekunle was said to have been trashed with horse whips severely. The flogging inflicted sores on his back . He is reported to have been taken to an undisclosed hospital.
Reports say the barracks and environs get five hours power supply daily, which allegedly falls short of the soldiers’ expectation.
Adekunle, in a chat with The Punch at the weekend, said the incident occurred on March 6.
According to him, “I was on duty on that day around 12pm when the soldiers came into our office with horse whips. They told me to get up and without explanation, they started beating me.
“I had to go to the hospital for treatment. I informed our head office and it promised to do something about it.
“They had come earlier then to threaten us. We reported at our head office and the head of the barracks was petitioned.
“They complained that they did not get supply regularly, but it is not our fault.
“They said they would be the ones to determine the number of hours they want power. We told them it was not possible, but they didn’t want to listen,” Adekunle lamented.
An unidentified official at the IBEDC said they had been living in fear since the incident happened, adding that threats from the soldiers had intensified.
“They (the soldiers) said it would not be threats again, but killing.
“Major Musa said he would send soldiers we don’t know. We spoke out because we cannot wait for them to kill us,” he said.
Meanwhile, Major Musa, when contacted, reportedly denied leading soldiers to attack the electricity workers.
“All the information is false. You can come to the barracks to get the correct information,” Major Musa was quoted to have said.
However, one of the victim’s colleague who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the unit officials had received threats from the barracks authorities, making them to be afraid whenever they were on duty.
He stated that the barracks had power between eight to 15 hours every day until recently when power generation dropped nationwide.
Adekunle’s colleague further noted that they had explained to the soldiers that the outage was caused by a reduction in the power generation nationwide, but they turned deaf ears to their explanation.
He said, “Electricity supply is divided into three levels: generation, transmission and distribution. This implies that generation affects transmission, which in turn affects distribution.
“The relationship between them is directly proportional. If there is less sufficient generated power, then there will be less power at our own side to distribute to the community, including the barracks.
“Before now, there was supply for at least eight hours and at times, 15 hours. Electricity generation has reduced from 4517MW to 2800MW and now to over 1500MW.
“All this is known and understood by the soldiers in the barracks, but they pretend as if they do not know; that is why they now get five hours’ supply per day.
“Initially, the soldiers blamed us. Soon, it graduated to threats. They once arrested us and took us to their barracks and detained us for hours; l was a victim,” he added.
The spokesperson in the brigade is yet to comment on the incident; however, a soldier attached to the brigade confirmed the attack.
The soldier said, “I am not authorized to speak to the press, but I am aware of the attack.
The soldier, who pleaded anonymity, said he was not around when the incident happened.
“Power supply is not regular in the barracks. We used to have power for eight to 10 hours.”
