By Gbenga Oloniniran
Friends of slain Adeniyi Sanni, an aide to Senator Solomon Adeola, have lamented the silence of the Nigerian Army over the death of the aide who was allegedly killed by suspected military officers.
Sanni was murdered in the early hours of Saturday, August 5, 2023, in Lagos.
The Media Adviser to Senator Adeola, Kayode Odunaro, wondered why the Army had not responded to the allegations against them.
Odunaro had, in a statement made on behalf of the lawmaker on Monday, noted that the senator said his aide “was killed by a syndicate of soldiers operating under the newly-deployed Commander of 9 Brigade, Ikeja Cantonment of the Nigeria Army, through the mounting of checkpoints and robbing of lone occupants of cars.”
Meanwhile, Odunaro in another statement made available to PUNCH Metro on Thursday noted that the 9 Brigade is under Brigadier General A.M Adetuyi and not Brig.-Gen. Nsikan Edet as earlier stated. He noted that Senator Adeola regretted the mix-up.
Odunaro said, “The senator has since discovered that Brig Gen Edet left the Cantonment in July this year after a stint from May. The Senator, while standing by all revelations of his statement and without imputation of any wrongdoing, regrets the mix-up.”
However, speaking further in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday, Odunaro while decrying the silence of the Army, said, “A lot of things are wrong in their approach to the issue. A senator issued a statement pointing an accusing finger at you, but you have not reacted, today is the fourth day. Silence is another angle to the story.
“Why are they silent? They should make a statement on what the senator said. I have not read it anywhere that they responded. Will they not respond if the senator brings the matter to the National Assembly?”
Some of the friends of the deceased who also spoke earlier in the week said the Army had not denied the allegations.
“If they are not involved, they should have spoken by now to deny it,” one of them who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
Although the Army through the spokesperson for the 81 Division, Victoria Island Lagos, Lt.-Col. Olabisi Ayeni, has not responded to further enquiries from our correspondent over the matter, Ayeni had on Wednesday said “investigation is ongoing.”
PUNCH Metro reports that the remains of Sanni were interred at the Redeemed Camp vault, Mowe, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Wednesday.
His brother, Opeyemi Sanni, during a tribute at the procession organised in his honour, said he had had to console himself by just saying that his brother travelled and he could no longer be reached.
“So that we can just move on, I told myself that my brother travelled and I can’t reach him, that’s the only way I can move on,” he said during a programme in honour of the deceased on Tuesday
