It was a bizarre scene in Ovre Eku (Iwevbo) community on Wednesday as some soldiers reportedly beat up women who were protesting the sale of a disputed piece of land between Edo and Delta States to an oil company.
According to Vanguard, the women, many of them septuagenarians, matched to the piece of land to express their displeasure at the sale and insisted that a representative of the oil company must address them.
However, soldiers drafted to protect the site, numbering about 10, had other ideas as they ordered the women to leave.
When the women insisted on being addressed by a representative of the company, the soldiers led by the unit commander, one Lt O.O Oworobo, went berserk, beating up the women and trampling on them.
While some of the women escaped into the nearby bushes, some of them in their 80s could not do so because of their age and were flogged and trampled upon by the soldiers.
The soldiers later attacked the village of Ovre Eku, the report stated, destroying at least nine motorcycles and 13 bicycles.