Lawyer allegedly assaulted by soldiers in Festac town (photos)

A friend of lawyer, Babajide Sipe, sent in the story of how he was allegedly brutalized by soldiers in Festac town on April 26th. According to the story, Barrister Sipe was victimized by 4 military officers because he appealed to them to move a vehicle they parked, a little off the road so as to alleviate building traffic off 402 junction in Festac Town, Lagos. He was allegedly battered blue and black and stabbed twice on the head and back. His car was shot at twice as he drove off in a bid to avoid creating a scene. Read the full story after the cut...

"On the 26th of April Barrister Olajide Sipe went to get water for his family at home. At about 3:30pm a solider had blocked part of the road at Mobil filling station, thereby causing traffic for the cars coming from the other part of the road. Barrister Jide came down from his car and said to him...

"Oga this thing you are doing is causing hold up, why don’t you take the bus out of the road so we can move. The solider replied saying who are you and what nonsense are you talking and he replied Oga no I am not trying to teaching you what to do. I am only telling you that if you do this thing it will be better for us using the road. The next thing he said was, you must e a useless man. When he saw that the soldier was already taking that tone, Sipe decided to move his car.

Then the soldier started running after him. After he took a turn at 23 road junction, another solider light in complexion came in front of his car and stopped him. He said the soldier began kicking his front wheels and smashed his windscreen. When he saw the soldiers action, he moved then two other soldiers boarded a bike then they later became four and began chasing him. As he got to 7th avenue, he made a U-turn and they rammed their bike into his car then he drove off. When they saw me driving they shot at the car twice, it was he second bullet that hit his tyre. When he heard the gun shot, I could not believe he was been shot at. After his tyre went flat, he came down and they ran to him and beat him blue black with sticks, stones, kicked him, broke his head until a retired commodore came to his rescue and he was rushed to a nearby clinic for treatment.

He said it is a miracle he is alive today. Not only was he beaten, his car was vandalized and all four tyres punched even after they asked the soldiers to stop. Barrister Jide is a married man with a son and also has his clothing line called L an P. He is not a criminal either did he do anything wrong but he was maltreated and we need justice to be served. These soldiers are meant to protect us why then are they causing fear and havoc amongst us civilians?