SOWORE SLAMS NIGERIAN ARMY FOR SHUTTING BANEX PLAZA IN ABUJA OVER SOLDIERS, TRADERS’ CLASH
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Omoyele Sowore, an African Action Congress presidential candidate in 2023 and a rights campaigner, has denounced the Nigerian Army’s closure of Banex Plaza in Abuja.
Sowore claimed that the behavior should be halted since it is a kind of repression by military against civilian spaces in a post on his X account on Tuesday.
In the wake of the altercation that broke out on Saturday between a few traders and soldiers, the Nigerian Army declared the closure of a well-known market for electronic and telecommunications devices in Abuja.
The merchant who sold a soldier a “faulty phone” was the source of the pandemonium that went viral over the weekend.
But on Tuesday, the Army announced that it had closed the square after several thugs in the market attacked its unarmed soldiers.
Giving an update on the issue, a statement issued by Director of Army Public Relations, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, on Tuesday, said, “Following the recent unrest at Banex Plaza in Wuse, Abuja, on Saturday 18 May 2024, by yet to be identified hoodlums who launched a brutal attack on some Nigerian Army personnel, a swift intervention by soldiers and policemen on internal security duties salvaged the situation and rescued the attacked personnel from being lynched by the hoodlums.
“It is important to note that the soldiers attacked were unarmed, did not engage in any form of aggression, and posed no threat to anyone. Therefore, the cruel treatment meted out to them was entirely unwarranted and unjustifiable.
“In response to this unfortunate incident, a meeting was convened with the management of Banex Plaza to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of this heinous act by temporarily shutting down activities in the plaza to ensure that the hoodlums who have been using the Banex neighborhood as a sanctuary to pose a security threat to the Federal Capital Territory were apprehended.”
Reacting to the statement, Sowore asked the army authorities to swiftly end the siege and order the soldiers to leave the civilian space.
He said, “It is unheard of, even under military rule, that civilian spaces would be shut down in a business that employs thousands over a disagreement between soldiers and civilians.
“The Nigerian army should stop military men who are not on active duties from putting on uniforms, so many of these military men have been caught in heinous crimes.
“Recently, the @HQNigerianArmy leveled a village in Delta state, and now you’re using the might of the military to shut down commercial activities in a matter that is purely a civil matter; military men have abducted journalists and arbitrarily engaged in repression.”
“These acts must stop immediately! #RevolutionNow,” he added.
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