For Ogunniyi Martins, December 28, 2021, was a day he will never forget in a hurry.
Ogunniyi, who is a staff of IITA, was assaulted and brutalised by yet to be identified soldiers in front of University of Ibadan.
Narrating how he was brutalised, Ogunniyi said the incident happened around 7pm on December 28.
He said: “There is always an hold-up when you are coming from Sango to UI in the evening. As I was coming from Sango towards UI, I was on my lane, the two lanes that go to Ojoo from UI. He (the soldier) was on the second lane that leads to UI, when he got to where he was supposed to branch into UI, though he was not going to UI, he wanted to join the main lane that leads to Ojoo, as he was attempting to face Ojoo, that was where he bashed my car.”
He continued: “After bashing my car, he broke the pointer and bashed the bonnet.
He came down and asked me to come down to see how I bashed his car. Meanwhile, he was the one at fault. Immediately I saw the kind of force he came down with, I took up my phone and started recording because he was at fault.
“He told me to reverse to see what I have caused. I told him that he was the one that was wrong and he said he would slap me, detain me, impound my car and all sort of that. After saying that, he went forward to park his car; as he was going, that was when I took the video of his plate number and started shouting.
“He has a lady sitting beside him in the vehicle. I don’t know how many people that were in the car but a lady later came down to tell me she was in the car with the man and that I should delete the video from my phone which I declined.
“Amid this, a young man with lexus came to meet me and asked me to delete the video that he is a personnel officer but was not wearing any uniform. The man was on the side of the soldier. He said he will deal with me. Before I noticed what was happening, he went into the Lexus car and brought a belt with iron on its head.
“As soon as he came back, he started shouting, delete that video now or I will show you. Then he started beating me with the belt. Immediately that happened, people came around to condemn the act and started attacking the man that called himself personnel officer.”
According to Ogunniyi, when the personnel officer saw the reaction of people around, he drove off.
“The soldier was still telling me to delete the video but by that time, people have come to support me.
“After some minutes, another soldier met us there and was trying to persuade me that they are our brothers but I told him that his soldier colleague has forgotten that before hitting me with iron belt. I sustained injury from the hit of that iron belt. When the soldier saw it, he left the scene and drove towards Sango,” Ogunniyi added
