Soldiers brutalise protesting women in Edo, Delta states

Reports say some soldiers, numbering about 10, have used their boots on hundreds of women protesting at Ovre-Eku (Iwevbo) community between Edo and Delta states. According to source, the protest was said to have been over a land which had been in dispute for years between both states.
At least 500 women, wearing black clothing, had reportedly converged at Eku community from where they marched to the disputed land with a coffin covered in palm fronds to show how unhappy they are with the purchase of their land by an oil company. The report has it that the women were accosted by soldiers about 10.45am, when they got to the portion of land and were ordered to leave the site after the women had women insisted on being addressed by a representative of the company. A senior military officer identified to be the Unit Commander at the site, Lt. E D Oworobo, who was said to have been irked by the women’s demands, cocked his riffle and threatened to shoot before ordering his men to flog the women. different journalist, who had accompanied the protesting women, suffered the same fate as the soldiers chased the fleeing women into adjoining bushes at the site. It was reported that the aged among the women, some in their 80s, who could not run, were flogged and trampled on by the soldiers with tree stems. Lt. Oworobo, when contacted to react to the brutality by his men, told the journalist that he was an ‘idiot and a madman’. The soldiers, after the initial raid, were said to have also gone haywire at about 11.30am, invaded parts of Ovre-Eku community, destroyed nine motorcycles and 13 bicycles in the process. Residents of the community were also said to be on the run when the soldiers in a white Toyota Hilux van stormed their area.