Soldiers Not Responsible For Death Of Three Arepo Residents – DHQ

Rabe AbubakarThe Defence Headquarters has denied allegations that soldiers rounded up three men of Arepo Community on the Lagos-Ogun border and killed them.
Residents of the community yesterday took to the streets in protest against the alleged murder of the three men identified simply as Biodun Mohammed, 24, Body and Chicago.
The residents claimed that about seven personnel of the military component of the joint task force on anti-pipeline vandalism on Sunday, arrested the trio at a beer parlor in the area and took them into a bush where they allegedly executed them and abandoned their corpses in Voera Estate.
Arepo community, notorious for pipeline vandalism, was the scene of the ambush and brutal murder of some operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, by suspected vandals last year.
The Director of Defence Information, Rabe Abubakar, who described the allegations against the soldiers as unfair, urged residents of Arepo community to point their fingers elsewhere.
According to Mr. Abubakar, a Brigadier General, all security agencies engaged in that operation have been committed towards protecting government infrastructure and the lives of innocent residents who were easy target for vandals.
“To accuse soldiers of any of the killings is unfair. There is no iota of truth in that. I have received the details and I can tell you that there was no sign of gunshots nor was there anything to show military personnel or operatives engaged in Operation Awatse were responsible. In as much as we sympathize with the people over their loss, we advise that they should point their fingers elsewhere.
“Why would soldiers kill people now? There has been no operation since Easter holiday. No encounter and nothing has happened. If the military was hostile towards the populace there, it would have taken revenge when some personnel were killed but we maintained peace.
“How can we kill people we are out to protect? Caution should be applied in allegations like this. Miscreants have been siphoning fuel and vandalizing platforms of government. The government decided to give protection to the facilities as well as innocent residents by deploying security forces to the area”, the Defence spokesman said.