Forty-year-old Helen Odaudu, the mother of a civilian, Emmanuel, who has been languishing in the Nigerian Military Special Investigation Bureau underground cell in Abuja for eight months over an old Facebook video, has appealed to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), to assist in securing the release of her son.
Helen also appealed to the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, to intervene in Emmanuel’s continued detention, lamenting that her son was suffering unjustly. Report has it that Emmanuel’s ordeal started when he posted videos of himself rapping in his uniform while he was in the Army and after being detained for three months, he was reportedly dismissed by the military authorities for his action.
The narrative, however, took another dimension when the military tracked Emmanuel down to his home town in Benue State on June 12, 2020, on the allegation that he impersonated the Army when one of the videos that led to his dismissal resurfaced online.
Helen said the military authorities had been treating her son like a criminal because of the videos and urged the President to use his office as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to get Emmanuel released.
She said, “I am pleading with the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to ask the Nigerian Army to release my son. He has suffered a lot in detention. My son didn’t run away from the job, they dismissed him, because of one mistake and after his dismissal, they came back to re-arrest him and have kept him in detention for eight months without trial. He is a civilian and should be handed over for trial in a civilian court, because he is no longer a soldier.
SOURCE: PUNCH NIGRRIA
