A man, identified simply as Hamzat, has cried out after suspected soldiers allegedly invaded his block factory located at Bankole Estate, Magboro, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, and seized his Toyota RAV 4 vehicle.
Hamzat who spoke with PUNCH Metro on Saturday said the soldiers numbering up to five in a pick-up van were looking for his younger brother, Sulaimon, who is an Islamic cleric.
He noted that the matter began after he introduced a yet-to-be-identified suspected Yahoo boy, who is a brother to his girlfriend to Sulaimon for special prayers.
He said after the prayer was successful, his girlfriend’s brother wanted more special prayers and Sulaimon introduced him to another yet-to-be-identified Islamic cleric in the Agege area of Lagos.
Hamzat said, “After my brother introduced him to another Alfa for special prayer, maybe he was duped (or he didn’t get the expected returns after payment), I don’t know. My brother also said he did not know what transpired between the boy and the other Alfa.
“On Tuesday, I was called by someone that some people were at my block factory and they wanted to buy blocks. So I rushed down. I told the person the price of my blocks. In the course of that, I just saw some soldiers coming into the estate. They came to me and said they wanted to see me. I asked them what happened, but they started grabbing me.
“When I looked into their car, I saw the guy I introduced to my brother and his sister, who is my girlfriend. Then the soldiers said I should follow them. They said they would drive my car with them, but I refused, I said I couldn’t give them my car key but I would drive along with them since I did not steal or commit any crime.”
He added that the soldiers took him to their barracks at Ebute where they allegedly collected N10,000 from him and seized his car pending when he would produce his brother.
Hamzat noted that one of the soldiers kept calling him and asking him to produce his brother.
The number said to belong to the soldier was contacted by our correspondent but the recipient asked our correspondent to come to the Army base at Arepo.
Contacted, the spokesperson for the 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Lt Col Ayeni Olabisi, promised to find out about the matter.
On her part, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, said the matter was being investigated.
“The case is being investigated,” the PPRO told our correspondent on Sunday.
