Victim narrates how Soldiers on Operation Burst harassed, extorted him in Ibadan

Young man has taken to Twitter to narrate what he went through the hands of officers of the Nigeria Army who are carrying out Operation Burst in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Expessiveinfo earlier reported that solders where filmed flogging a woman for alleged “indecent” dressing and cutting hair of young men in Ibadan.

Narrating how the soldiers harassed and extorted him, @sportaneouspato wrote:

“Operation burst was deployed to different part of Ọ̀yọ́ state for peace keeping unfortunately this set of people have been using this opportunity to extort the people of Oyo state. On my way to church this Morning Ist of November 2020, passing through Bẹ̀rẹ̀ axis of ibadan

“Where operation burst were deployed, we have to raise our hands to pass through them to show you are harmless. Since that’s what others are doing I raised my hand as well and I heard this loud voice with “hey hey hey” since I wasn’t hey I continued moving so the other military guy had to run up to me saying I disrespected his Oga by turning deaf ear to his call.

I told him I don’t know he was calling me then the next thing he said was I should sit on the floor.

I sat on the floor in the sun for the accusation of disrespecting the officer of the law’s call.

“After some minutes the Oga walked up to me and said he will be cutting my hair that I was not on the right haircut. I was like which one is the right haircut? he said I will know when I’m done. Right beside me was an officer cutting a guy’s hair and after he paid them 500naira.

“So the oga told me to meet the other guy for my haircut I told him nothing is wrong with my haircut and I can’t barb my hair elsewhere because I have my barber and I go with my clipper to avoid any infection or disease. Then he told me to pay 500naira and go.

“I told him I don’t have any money on me as he can see I’m on my way to church and I have only my offering with me. After a while of sitting he told me to go and meet the Oga and tell him I don’t have money during that process I misplaced the 1k I was holding probably it fell when I was asked to sit and they took it then they released me after.

Right in front of me they called two guys and asked them to slap themselves but for the fear of men in khaki they were slapping themselves heavily for like 8 rounds for doing nothing @seyiamakinde this pple (operation burst) are meant for peace keeping in the hot areas of oyo state not for them to put fear In the mind of the people or extort them.

“Please call this people to order and remind them of their duties because the longer they stay to extort the more they get disrespected and this will eventually lead to violent.

“Same thing a department of @PoliceNG did and they were disbanded, since then police officers are scared to wear their uniforms. Now operation burst is following that same part of destruction, I guess the don’t like their reputation.

“It is so sad how we come to be our own problem in this country and we keep looking elsewhere for solutions. For how long do we want to fight for betterment if change cannot begin with me and you.”