Some civilian staff members of the Ministry of Defence have staged a protest against the actions of some private soldiers, who were captured in a trending video brutalising the Assistant Director, Command Secondary School, Ipaja, Lagos State.
In the video clip, no fewer than three soldiers, who were dressed in their uniforms, were seen beating and kicking the yet-to-be-identified director at the front of the school.
The director, while defending himself during the attack at the front of the school, scampered into the school premises as the soldiers are seen in the video clip giving him a hot chase.
“They have killed him; they have killed him, soldiers,” some of the people who witnessed the attack were heard lamenting in the trending video.
Angered by the development, colleagues of the victim, who said they were tired of the constant attacks on civilian staff members by soldiers, are seen in another video holding a demonstration as they demand justice for the brutalised assistant director.
Under the aegis of the Joint Executive Council, the civilian staff members working at the Ministry of Defence were heard chanting solidarity songs and they carried placards to express their grievances against the harassment and brutality meted out on their colleagues by soldiers.
Speaking during the protest, which took place at the headquarters of the Defence Ministry, in Abuja, the President of the council, Joel Didam, lamented the constant brutalisation of civilian staff members, noting that some of their members were even locked up in a guard room.
He said, “It is a sad day for us; what led to this action is that yesterday, a trending video showed as one of our assistant directors (civilian) was brutalised by some private soldiers in the Command Secondary School in Ipaja, Lagos State.
“They killed one of our members, Comrade Richard, some months ago. We have asked the management to react but up until today, we have not seen any action.
“And last month, one of our civilian staff was locked in the guard room at Jaji for up to a month. It was when we met the Perm Sec that he called and he was released. Yesterday, this incident happened again.”
The protesters, while demanding an end to the brutality of their colleagues, demanded that the Minister of Defence should address them.