Amari Sunday, the young man who was tortured by some cadet officers in a video that recently went viral on social media, says he was forced to compliment the female officer who led the assault.
In the video, the officer was seen slapping Sunday repeatedly for saying she is beautiful.
“Am I beautiful? How beautiful am I? Bastard! Idiot! Describe me, am I not like Beyonce? He said I’m beautiful, am I Angelina Jolie,” she had said.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, Sunday appealed to the authorities to instill discipline into cadets, who he said were in the habit of punishing innocent people.
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He also revealed the location of the video as Abuja, contrary to the claim of the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) that it happened in Lagos.
After the report got to the media, the DHQ vowed to probe the incident, saying preliminary investigations showed it happened in Lagos.
“The attention of The Nigerian Defence Academy has been drawn to a trending video showing cadets beating some persons. Please note that NDA is investigating the incident. Preliminary investigation has confirmed the incident to have occurred in 2014 somewhere in Lagos while the cadets were on break,” the statement read.
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But Sunday, who disclosed that it happened on December 31, 2014, demanded for justice.
“We were attached to some police men and army officers, because of some terrorists that come around the area, so I thought maybe they (the cadets) were deployed to come around in case of any problem not knowing they had their own personal intention of coming,” he said.
“They came while I was at the reception; they passed by my right and they were beating one boy there. I couldn’t talk. One of them then said I should come. He gave me five seconds to come and meet him and he was in a far distance.
“He said they gave me the first opportunity of five seconds and I failed, three seconds and I also failed. So, before I could say sorry, they slapped me. I said ‘Sorry, please, can I identify myself?’ They said ‘what f****** identification?’ I said ‘please I work here, I am also a federal government staff’. They said it didn’t mean. How will I identify myself? They beat me again.
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“So, when they began to slap me, the second lady also joined; they were two, so the two of them continued slapping me.
“She said she asked me a question and I couldn’t answer. And the question was: why did I fail to meet the other guy that called me within five seconds. And I said the distance was far and before I could run to him, the five seconds had gone. And he also sent me to come within three seconds and I couldn’t meet him. She now said I talked too much and slapped me again.
“I said sorry, she said she was talking to me and I was looking at the ground, that couldn’t I look at her? As I was looking at her, she slapped me again, I bent down and she said she was talking to me and I couldn’t look at her face.
“And then I started looking at her, she slapped me and she asked why I was looking at an army officer, that I should tell her whether she was beautiful or ugly. And she started looking at me. She said I should talk, so when I refused to talk, she slapped me again and I said ‘you are beautiful’.
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“Then they said I admired army officer in uniform; they said I had committed an offence. How could I admire army officer in uniform? The other guy came around and started beating me from back like you saw it in the video.”
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10 comments
It is another torture story. What a country are we living?
useless opportunits cadets…they should be expel from the army as soon as possible… they didn’t know that they are there by chance and they have started misbehaving
In UK the police would have picked them up for assist. More than enough evidence for the DPP to start prosecution..wearing a uniform does not confer the right to assault citizems. Sunday call also institute legal proceedings for compensation
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I am so happy that I didn’t waste my time sharing that video. Cadet concerned must be dismissed from the army, that will help to sanitize behavior
What do we expect from the Cadet Officers if preliminary investigation by army authority reveals that the incident happened in Lagos? How do you explain such investigation?
Some people are born sadists and those cadets are classical example.Are these the future generals the nigeria army is nurturing? God forbid, otherwise, civilians are in trouble.
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Don’t be surprise that their father is a top general in the army, that is why they are misbehaving. Only spoilt kids do what they did.
But for the sake of the discipline in the institution, I hope they are driven from the army, they are not worthy of the uniform. They just show how wicked they will turn out in the end and how they are going to terrorize every citizen if they are released to the public. They are a menace to society.
We live in a society where might is right.The soldiers could as well turned their guns on their victim if they had them at that point in time. They practise what they learn in training on defenceless citizens they should protect in the absence of the enemy. But i wonder why it took this long to bring this display of power,which fizzles out when the real enemy is faced, to the fore. These over-zealous soldiers should defend this act and if found guity, be made to remove this uniform in which they hide to carry out this barbarism.
Those cadets should be dismissed, it seems that these people (solders) misbehaving as if they are god, they do not know that they too will one day become civilian. How can a girl between the ages of 20-22 will be slapping man to be his elder brother simple because she is wearing uniform.
Those aren’t Cadets of the Nigeria Defence Academy, NDA.
They are too young to be.
They seem like pupils of one of the Army secondary or command schools.
they lost their discipline and fed their puerile masochist tendency on an innocent fellow.
They just abused the uniform they were wearing, because they are allowed to wear it.
They are not soldiers of the Nigerian Army. Many of those like Cadet companies in high institutions are also allowed to wear the uniform.
We should not mistake them as soldiers of the Republic.
May be it is time to review the uniform use among these groups, especially, at this time of our security situation