Anita Ogona
forces for justice in this inhuman treatment that led to the loss of life of Mr. Etubi.”
Meanwhile, when SaharaReporters contacted the hotel owner, Mr Steve for clarification he decried the killing of his staff, adding that soldiers had continued threatening to kill everybody in the hotel.
According to him, after the death of the said cadet officer, his staff called to inform him what was going on. “The Cadet officer came with two others. Two were cadet officers and a navy trainer. They came and parked their vehicle. We don’t know what happened because the deceased Cadet officer didn’t swim in the swimming pool. The next thing the other cadet officer started shouting that their college had drowned. We invited the police and fire service to pump out the water in the swimming pool but they didn’t do anything.
“To our greatest surprise, for about four hours he was reportedly inside the water, his stomach did not swell, and water didn’t come out from his mouth or nose.
“So, the policemen took the body to the morgue and took four of my staff to their station. They didn’t come back till the following morning being Wednesday when they released. The police instead of interrogating the two military personnel that came with the deceased officer, were shading them.
“So, when my staff returned some soldiers led by a lady military police came demanding that they (four staff) should come to their office. In the morning Friday, the four staff went there before even 8 am. According to my staff, when they got to the barracks, the lady military police officer ordered soldiers to torture them. One of the cadet officers that was with the late Chidiebere whom we suspect knows what killed his colleague carried a stick with other soldiers and beat brutally. James could not withstand it he collapsed. Seeing what they had done the lady military police officer got a tricycle and told him to take his body back to the hotel.
“Other staff who had already been badly assaulted were telling them that the man was dying. They chased them out with the tricycle operator they had already paid. Instead of coming to the hotel, they begged the tricycle operator to take him to the hospital. When they got to the federal medical center Umuahia, he was pronounced dead,” he narrated.
Steve, however, noted that when he got the information, he called Major Inuwa, who told him that he never directed the soldiers to kill his staff.
He regretted that though he had reported the gruesome murder of his staff to the police, all the soldiers that murdered his worker were still going around threatening to kill every staff of the hotel.
Steve, who said he resided in Lagos, vowed to get to the root of the whole incident and ensure justice for his staff that was brutally murdered by Nigerian soldiers for no reason.
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