Pandemonium broke out when soldiers invaded three houses in Tungan-Maje community in Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT and beat up family members, including the Galadima of Tungan-Maje, Salihu Aliyu.
According to Daily Trust, eight people, including a 23 year-old student of the College of Education (COE), Zuba, Shemau Salihu and the eldest son of the Galadima of Tungan-Maje, Abdulrahman Salihu, sustained fractures and other injuries from the assault.
Salihu, who narrated the incident to our reporter yesterday, said the incident happened around 8pm on Sunday when he was sitting in front of his house with his father and some of his friends.
He said some of the soldiers descended on them with sticks, while some went into three other houses and beat up the occupants.
Salihu explained that, “Before then, a lady came along with a man in mufti and pointed at me, telling the man that I am the brother.”
He said it was in the process of asking the lady what the problem was and who they were looking for that an argument ensued.
However, he said, shortly after he observed Ishai prayers, soldiers stormed the area and started beating up residents, including commercial cyclists.
“The soldiers then dragged us, including my father, into their Hilux van and drove us to their barracks.”
The Galadima of Tungan-Maje, Salihu Aliyu, who also spoke with our reporter, said, “I was coming out of the mosque when one of the soldiers grabbed my shirt and started hitting me with a stick while some of them were shooting sporadically.”
He said the soldiers later dragged him on the floor into their Hilux alongside seven others to their barracks in the area, and later released them.
The Chief of Tungan-Maje, Alhaji Salihu Isiaku Na’Annabi, confirmed the incident while speaking to our reporter, saying he was at his palace when some of his subjects came to him in tears that soldiers had beaten up the galadima and some others.
“I quickly put a call across to the Agora of Zuba but I couldn’t get him, and I told the Makama Karmi to alert him about the incident in my domain.”
The chief said one of his sons later contacted the commander of the barracks at Tungan-Maje to report the incident to him, and that the commander appealed to him that he would investigate the matter.
The Vice Chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council, Alhaji Mohammed Kasim Ikwa, said, “I was in Tungan-Maje this morning when they called me that some soldiers invaded three houses and beat up some residents.”
The vice chairman, while condemning the incident, said he had called the FCT Commissioner of Police, Sunday Babaji, to inform him about the incident.
Effort to get the reaction of the army commander at Tungan-Maje on the incident was not successful.
