Defence Headquarters condemn troops’ maltreatment of suspects, takes action
Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters, DHQ, has condemned the conduct of troops caught on video maltreating some suspected bandits and kidnappers arrested along the Kaduna-Abuja road.
Acting Director Defence information, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement on Wednesday, said the Chief of Defence Staff has ordered a thorough investigation into the incident. It lamented that the troops in their over-zealousness, tied one of the suspects to a stake in a desperate attempt to extract information from him. The DHQ wishes to unambiguously state that the act exhibited by the troops in the video footage is very unprofessional and an outright violation of the code of conduct handed down to guide the conduct and behaviour of troops of the AFN during operations. The DHQ therefore, in very strong terms condemn this act of ineptitude and exhibition of lawlessness”, the statement added. The DHQ considers the conduct of the troops highly regrettable. In order to promptly address the anomaly, the Chief of Defence Staff has ordered a thorough investigation into the incident to bring to book all those found culpable in accordance with the military justice system. We seize this opportunity to urge members of the public to please report any such misdemeanour to security agencies whenever they are observed, he said.