A Nigerian tweep has narrated how at least 6 men of the Nigerian Army beat up a mentally unstable man nicknamed Pastor over his inability to pay rent arrears.
 
The tweep, @RolandStruts who identified himself as a student of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, said the victim was his neighbour.
He said despite being mentally unstable and known for making strange noises and hitting the wall, the victim has never exhibited any sign of violence.
He said ‘Pastor’ walked out of the house about 10 months ago and had recently returned to the house when the landlord, identified as Baba Bello, invited some soldiers to assault and brutalise the man over his inability to pay rent.
 
Roland said the landlord had made efforts to evict ‘Pastor’ from the house but they were futile despite reporting to the police and approaching a court. Baba Bello, instead took the law into his hands by hiring soldiers who visited the house and beat up ‘Pastor’ over two consecutive days.
 
According to him, the soldiers beat up the mentally unstable man with dangerous items and abducted him to continue the beating in another location. He added that the victim escaped and returned to his house to get some of his property to start living in a store.
 
Giving an update on the situation, Roland said he alongside some neighbours will take ‘Pastor’ to a psychiatric hospital around the area.
 
The tweet reads, “DIRECTORATE FOR CITIZENS’ RIGHTS  http://lagosministryofjustice.org/directorate-for-citizens-rights/  Hello good morning, I’m here to report a case that’s disheartening, I’m a student of Yabatech Epe campus, I live here in Epe cos of school, I’ve got a neighbour we call Pastor and he is not mentally stable he has been away for like 10 months nobody knew his whereabout till recently when he just returned home all of a sudden.
 
“Although he is ‘mad’ (mentally unstable), he still communicates with people when he is okay and talks like a sensible human, though he loses his mind every day he hits things on the wall and makes all sorts of funny noises.
 
“He has never for once attacked anyone physically. Our landlord is known to be a greedy man who does anything for money, he has been complaining that the insane tenant’s rent is long overdue and he wants him out of the house but that’s not possible because the guy is mad.
 
“Our landlord claimed he went to the station and a court to report the mad man’s case and since that yielded nothing, the landlord took the law into his hands and hired soldiers to do the illegal job. The soldiers came and started beating up the guy, they really beat him up for nothing, his only crime was being mad, he was pleading for mercy they were about 6 or more soldiers against a mad man who didn’t retaliate because he was helpless.
 
“They flogged him with koboko (horsewhip) and bike brakes wire, they flogged him till they were satisfied then they left.
 
“Fast forward to yesterday, they came back to do the same and continued from where they stopped, yesterday’s beating was even worse, they hit him with belt buckles, broke all sort of cement blocks on his head, they beat him up so bad he started gasping for air.
 
“He was later carted away so they can go continue the beating, luckily he escaped and I was able to get pictures and video of him today, now he is scared, he left the house and took what he can, he is now staying in a stall, I’ve got more videos if people are interested.
 
“Update on Pastor’s case, went to Epe general hospital around 6 pm to make enquiries about their psychiatric ward, we spoke with a Matron who is willing to help, I and some neighbours would take him to the hospital tomorrow. Went to check on him tonight to know if he is doing okay.”
Efforts made by UGAMATV to reach the Nigerian Army Director of Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, were not successful as he did not answer calls or reply to a text message sent to him.