A Human Right Lawyer Barrister Obakpolor Emmanuel, has written a petition letter to the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Arm Forces, the National Security Adviser, Chief of Army Staff, the Commandant 19 Battalion, Nigerian Army Koko, the Brigade Commander, Nigeria Army Benin City and other relevant security agencies to call to order, some soldiers attached to a patrol team in Delta State with the inscription on their Hilux Vehicle DT JUL 023 over molestation, dehumanization, assault, battery and gross violation of human right at Ogharefe, the administrative headquarters of Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State.
Barrister Obakpolo, a Benin base Lawyer in his petition letter dated 17th December 2015, addressed to the above authorities, said they the Solicitors to Warm Up-Bar, a registered business outfit, with the Corporate Affairs Commission at Okhuro Road, Ogharefe, Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State on whose behalf and firm instruction they wrote the petition, carries out a legitimate business on Okhuro Road, Ogharefe, Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State as their client business is well registered with registration name “Lady Warm-Up Restaurant and Bar” with Business Number (BN 23570990) legally incorporated with Corporate Affairs Commission.
They added that their Client has been in operations for the past fifteen years without any record of criminal activities or involvement, but surprisingly on the 12th day of July, 2015 a troop of soldiers led by one Captain Ezekiel Wakili from an Oil Company (Pan Ocean) which carry out oil exploration at Oghara, Ethiope West Local Government Area, stormed their Client’s business premises and started beating its customers with the instruction that the people (their victims) should stop patronizing it.
They continued that the same sets of soldiers led by the same team stormed the said premises again on the 19th day of July 2015 and started shooting sporadically putting all its customers on the run, while they the soldiers arrested some of the customers in the process to their base and were held captive for five days until they were eventually released with the same instruction, “don’t go to Lady Warm-Up again”, which prompted their client to contact them (lawyers) where the petition was put up to that regard to 19 Battalion Koko and 4 Brigade Benin, Nigeria Army while same petition appeared on different dailies.
Barrister Obakpolor, explained further that on the 6th day of December 2015, another set of soldiers stormed the bar with a Hilux Vehicle with army colour bearing the inscription on both sides DT JUL 023 as the soldiers started beating the customers of the client, while also shooting sporadically, noting that more worrisome is the continuous harassment, intimidation and assault committed by these soldiers on the customers of their Client, revealing also that the soldiers has vowed to run down the business of their client and that they will do whatever it takes to achieve their mission of destruction.
The Lawyer maintained that the “constitutional function of the Armed Forces is to protect the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Nigeria from external aggression, and not to intimidate, harass and assault innocent citizens who go about their legitimate business.
