Sagir Koli, the Nigerian Army Captain, who
exposed the planning and rigging of the 2014
governorship election in Ekiti State by top
government officials and the military, has
given details how his younger brother was
arrested and tortured at a military facility in
Ibadan Oyo state after he fled the country.
In a video made available to PREMIUM TIMES
on Monday, Mr. Koli said 15-year-old Adamu
Koli who lived with him before his escape,
was arrested in his house in Akure, Ondo
state where he was serving.
“He was staying with me and was attending
Army Children School in the Barracks, they
went for him after they learnt I have left.
“When he was released, he told the family
that he was chained, handcuffed and starved
of food. According to him he was fed once, or
twice at times often with the kind of food he
was not used to,” he said.
Captain Koli also revealed that as a result of
what he went through, the young Koli became
sick.
“They took him to the Hospital, and doctors
said he was ulceric,” he said.
Also, in a petition to the chairman of National
Human Rights Commission, a copy of which
was made available to PREMIUM TIMES,
lawyers to the Koli family said the young man
was chained to his bed even while in the
hospital.
The lawyers, J. Akin Ajayi and Associates, said
the younger Koli was detained at the Military
Hospital with Adekunle Fajuyi cantonment in
Ibadan.
They said as solicitors to the Koli family, they
undertook a trip to Ibadan with a member of
the Koli family to verify the whereabouts of
the boy and ascertain his state of being.
“At Fajuyi cantonment, we were denied
access to the young man in the cantonment in
spite of showing them his passport
photographs and narrating the relationship
between the young man and the officer in
whose custody he has been,” they said.
Although Adamu Koli has been released at
present, the lawyers in the petition written on
November 15 last year, pointed out that it was
wrong for the military authorities to transfer
their anger with Captain Koli to his younger
brother.
The chairman of National Human Rights
Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, could not
immediately confirm whether it was the
commission’s efforts based on the petition by
his family lawyers that led to the release of
the boy.
The video leaked by Captain Koli revealed
how some Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP,
chieftains connived with security agencies to
rig the gubernatorial election in Ekiti State.
At the meeting, as evidenced by the
recording, prominent officials of the PDP were
heard discussing strategies for rigging the
2014 Ekiti governorship election, a poll in
which the party eventually won by a
landslide.
But some of the actors, including Musiliu
Obanikoro, a former Defence Minister, and
Ayo Fayose, who defeated the incumbent
governor, denied being a party to the plot to
rig the election and questioned the
authenticity of the recording.
Despite their denials, the Minister of Police
Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, who also attended the
meeting, confirmed Sunday that the tape was
authentic.
He however disagreed with the context of the
discussion, saying the meeting was never
about plans to rig the Ekiti State election.
Premium times.
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