Confusion As Army Personnel Shoot At Traders, Buyers At Ado-Ekiti Market, Injure Three Including Young Girl
Panic gripped Fayose Market in Ado Ekiti as traders and customers fled for safety after some soldiers allegedly opened fire recklessly, leaving at least three people — including a young girl — injured by stray bullets.
According to eyewitnesses, the incident happened On Tuesday at Fayose market.
One witness, expressing anger over the conduct of the uniformed personnel, said the soldier involved was a “devil and should be dismissed with immediate effect,” adding that “That we’re bloody civilians doesn’t equate us to animals or lesser beings.”
Another trader stressed that “Soldiers should always be orientated that civilians are citizens.”
Recounting the chain of events that sparked the chaos, a witness explained: “What happened yesterday is this: the soldier in uniform sighted a customer who came to repair his phone at our market wearing a short knicker, the soldier on uniform claimed the knicker looks like their colour/camouflage which wasn’t true.”
The engineer attending to the customer, described as “the man in Ankara,” and who was later stabbed was mistaken by the soldier as the offender.
According to traders, “The only offence this guy in Ankara committed was to ask the soldier on uniform that how can you call this your camouflage?”
He had urged the soldier against intimidation. The confrontation escalated when witnesses said, “the soldier on uniform brought out his combat knife to stab the man.”
Another eyewitnesses continued: “That’s all that happened before the soldier on uniform went on to stab him, injuring him severally in the process.”
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The situation worsened when another man at the scene who was a red plain cloth allegedly “called for reinforcement to the market.
“They came with two truck and they started shooting sporadically and three people were hit with stray bullet.”
The sporadic gunfire triggered a stampede as traders desperately abandoned their stalls to escape the bullets that tore through the busy market.
