The Nigerian Army on Tuesday apologised to the family of Abubakar Alhaji, a commercial motorcyclist who was beaten to death by a sergeant, Taiwo Owoeye, a soldier in Lagos.
“The Nigerian Army has detained Sgt. Owoeye for murder, we find the matter reprehensible and condemnable,” the Nigerian Army’s counsel, Bola Oyebanji, said on Tuesday.
“However, this is a single act which showed that the sergeant was on his own.
“We apologise and sympathise with the family of the deceased,” Mr. Oyebanji said as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria.
The panel, currently sitting in the South-west, is to sit in the six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory from September 11 to November 3.
The head of the panel, Justice Biobel Goodwill also, giving his condolences, told the brother of the deceased “apologies to you and your family for the death of your brother”.
Mr. Goodwill after tendering the apology, told Lucas Koyejo, a counsel from the National Human Rights Commission to follow up with the military trial of Mr. Owoeye to ensure that justice is done and to liaise with the victim’s family.
Earlier, Mr. Alhaji’s brother, Salihu Mojahid, in his testimony before the panel, shed light on the series of events leading to his brother’s death.
Mr. Mojahid said: “On February 27, my brother called Abubakar Alhaji, a commercial motorcyclist, took a passenger to Maroko Roundabout beside Myhoung Barracks, Yaba, Lagos.
“He parked at the back of a vehicle and unknown to him someone was in the vehicle, the person in the vehicle reversed and bystanders shouted that a commercial motorcyclist is behind him.
“My brother knocked on the car to alert the owner that he parked behind him, the owner of the car came out and he was Sgt. Taiwo Owoeye.
“Owoeye who was in full military uniform, slapped my brother twice and after he fell down, and he started kicking my brother several times in his stomach while he was on the ground.
“Bystanders tried apologising to him but he refused to listen to them till my brother fell unconscious.
“When my brother became unconscious, he wanted to leave and the bystanders said ‘do you not see the state of the person you have beaten up?
“Sgt. Owoeye told them ‘let him die, even if he dies, nothing will happen’.
“Fellow commercial motorcyclists and military men took him to a hospital in the barracks , he was vomiting blood till the next day.
“My brother died on February 28 and the Commandant ordered the arrest of Sergeant Owoeye.”
Mr. Mojahid claimed that his brother’s corpse was not released to the family until May 25 which was four months after the incident.
