BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Residents of Iree community, Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State, have been thrown into serious panic after a soldier was assaulted and left wounded on Tuesday by some hoodlums.
It was gathered that the thugs, led by a man identified simply as Gbedu in the community, broke the soldier’s head during the clash.
The cause of the disagreement between the soldier, who was dressed in a military uniform at the time he was attacked, and the hoodlums was not known.
But in a video clip of the incident obtained by The Point, two suspected hoodlums, one of whom was identified as Gbedu, were seen beating the soldier, whose identities could not be immediately ascertained, around Poly Junction Area in Iree while people watched.
A shop owner at Poly Junction, who spoke on condition of anonymity during an interview with our correspondent, said after the soldier had been assaulted and left in the pool of his blood, some of his colleagues arrived at the scene and took him away.
He said, “The incident happened today. I don’t know what happened between the hoodlums and the soldier but I saw them beating him. We were even begging the hoodlums to leave him. The hoodlums were led by Gbedu. He is a notorious thug in the town.
“They beat the soldier thoroughly and smashed his head. They later left him drenched in blood.
“Some soldiers came around a few minutes after and took the wounded soldier away. But this evening, many soldiers came back and stayed at the Poly Junction for some hours. They later left without harassing anyone.
“But many people in the town are still scared because they fear the soldiers will come to retaliate. Shops were shut and residents, including students of the polytechnic, have since remained indoors.”
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Osun Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Kehinde Adeleke, confirmed the incident.
She said, “Some miscreants in Iree attacked some personnel of the Nigerian Army who were on a mission to Osun State Polytechnic, Iree and wounded some of them. What led to the attack was still sketchy.”
Meanwhile, residents have expressed fear over the development as some of them feared reprisal attacks by the military officers.
