An Army general, Major General Olusegun Adeniyi, has been accused of assaulting Emmanuel Ejeh, the chairman of Fatima Gold Estate in Karu, Nasarawa State.
Ojeh was assaulted by soldiers mobilised by General Adeniyi on Thursday morning at the entrance of Fatima Gold Estate over the Notice of disconnection of Adeniyi’s premises, Top Rock Garden from the estate’s transformer.
Adeniyi was the former Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole who was demoted after a military court martial found him guilty of violating some sections of the policy on the use of social media for personnel of the armed forces of Nigeria
Ojeh told said the decision to disconnect Top Rock Garden was a sequel to the decision of the general house.
According to him, “On receipt of the letter which he (General Adiniyi) refused to sign the acknowledgement.
“He demanded to see me at the gate which I went. On reaching there, I met him with his orderlies and plain-dressed soldiers.
“He started raining insults on me and the estate and threatened to disrupt the peace of the estate with his soldiers and thugs, that he will block our entrance if we disconnect him from our transformer.
“As I was trying to explain to him, he didn’t allow me to talk and the next I saw was slaps and punches on me to the full glare of our security, residents and bystanders.
“It took the grace of God and pleas from people to dissuade him from inflicting serious injury on me”
Ojeh said that after General Adeniyi left, he later came back at about 12.30 pm to demand to see him or be taken to his house.
“The security informed him that I had not returned to the estate since the incident in the morning.
“I am using this medium to inform the entire members of the threat I am facing and the estate as well.
“He had promised to disrupt our peace by the use of thugs and soldiers and also take personal actions on me at all cost”.
In November 2020, a military court martial found the major general guilty of producing and publicising a video on the counter-insurgency operation in the northeast in a manner that embarrassed and ridiculed the armed forces of Nigeria.
He was therefore ordered demoted by at least three years. His orderly, Tokunbo Obanla, a private, was also found guilty and sentenced to 28 days in jail with hard labour.
The Nigerian Army had in July of the same year ordered Mr Adeniyi to face court-martial, four months after he was seen in a viral video confessing that Nigerian troops were being outgunned by Boko Haram terrorists.
Mr Adeniyi was leading a large troop of soldiers on a special operation when they came under heavy attacks by Boko Haram.
The commander was seen in two of four video clips giving a recorded situation report to the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, a lieutenant general.
He blamed the deadly attack his troops suffered on a “very wrong intelligence assessment” earlier conducted before they deployed.
“Since yesterday we have been met with very strong resistance – from more than pockets of Boko Haram. This morning, from every flank not least than 15 gun trucks were facing us.”
