NAF’s Condemnable Invasion of Ikeja Electric 

The recent invasion of Ikeja Electric by personnel of the Nigerian Air Force was another sad reminder of the refusal of some military officers to subordinate themselves to civil authorities and abide by the tenets of democracy, Ejiofor Alike writes

Members of staff of Ikeja Electric Company in Lagos have become the latest victims of the lawlessness of some personnel of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) from the Logistics Command, Ikeja, Lagos, last week invaded their Corporate Headquarters and Oshodi Business Unit Offices in a commando-like manner, unleashing mayhem on them, destroying the company’s facilities and their personal effects such as phones, laptops, and vehicles.

The invading NAF personnel reportedly attacked anyone in sight to protest the disconnection of power supply to the NAF Base over a N4 billion unpaid electricity bills.

No matter the inefficiencies of the companies in the power sector, the military should not resort to acts of lawlessness against these companies.

In the military’s characteristic style of promising an investigation of its own atrocities and sitting as a judge on its own case, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Logistics Command, Air Vice Marshal Adeniran Ademuwagun, whose officers and men carried out this despicable act, said that investigation would be carried out.

However, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), through its Executive Director of Research and Advocacy, Sunday Oduntan, had captured the offence of these soldiers appropriately as it likened the invasion to a coup against the power distribution companies in the country.

Speaking during a television programme, Oduntan captured it appropriately when he said: “This is how coups are planned and executed. When military personnel can sign out vehicles and arms to invade civilians, it is a dangerous precedent. What happened yesterday was a coup against Ikeja Electric. If justice is not served, they will do it again, and in a larger proportion,” Oduntan stated.

NAF’s attack on Ikeja Electric was not the first assault by the military on power utility companies.

In December 2021, the members of staff of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) who went to deliver a demand letter (AEDC/DMU/12-21/118) to one Major-General HD Tafida at his Gwarimpa residence in Abuja over his indebtedness to the service provider were reportedly tortured and detained by soldiers on the alleged order of the senior military officer.

On May 20, 2015, military personnel from 177 Guards Brigade Battalion near Keffi, Nasarawa State, raided the business premises of AEDC office at Keffi in two Hilux pick up vans.

They broke into the premises, assaulted the workers, and ordered the male ones to kneel down while the women were ordered to sit on the floor and severely beaten.

This latest assault on Ikeja Electric workers by the personnel of NAF came barely three weeks after the Delta State Commissioner of Police (CP), Abariwonda Olufemi, decried the unwarranted and embarrassing attack on a team of policemen by NAF personnel deployed in Jeddo near Warri, Delta State, on February 11, 2025, following the refusal of the policemen to release a criminal suspect caught with large quantities of suspected illegal substances, including “hard drugs”.

As usual, NAF stated that its personnel involved were undergoing disciplinary procedures in line with military regulations.

It is this persistent claim of handling cases of misconduct of its officers and men according to military tradition that the military uses to bury the atrocities of its personnel under the carpet.

When similar offences are committed by soldiers within the barracks, they are treated as mutiny by the military authorities.

For instance, in an eight-minute video, a former Nigerian ex-soldier, identified as Dele Olawale who was serving at 82 Battalion, Jaji, Kaduna State, had narrated how he was sentenced to death for asking his commander a mere question.

According to him, it took the efforts of a human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) for the Court of Appeal to quash the death sentence handed over to him and other soldiers.

With no regard to civil laws and civil authorities, the military is always the judge that sits over its own cases when its personnel commit heinous crimes outside the barracks.

The Nigerian military has established a notorious reputation for dehumanising and killing of policemen and innocent civilians in unprovoked attacks.

In November 2024, two about-to-wed partners, Vershima Mker, and Lami Jennifer Iorvihi, were brutalised and injured by Major General G.S. Muhammed and Corporal A. Abubakar of the Nigerian Army on Gwarinpa Road in Abuja.

Rogue soldiers also abducted, tortured and murdered an Inspector serving with the Lagos State Police Command, Monday Orukpe at the Trade Fair area of the state on August 3, 2022.

A responsible military should always allow the law to take its course in all circumstances but this is not the case with Nigerian soldiers.

In November 2023, soldiers of the 23 Armoured Brigade in Adamawa State mobilised armoured trucks and invaded the police headquarters in Jimeta-Yola and killed a police officer.

Nigerians are yet to be told the outcome of the investigation ordered by the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja into the torture and killing of the Manager of Hotel Royal Damgrete, Umuahia, Abia State, Mr. Achimugu Etubi, by soldiers on April 13, 2024.

In June 2024, an assistant director at the Ministry of Defence, was beaten by soldiers at Command Secondary School, Iyana Ipaja, Lagos, sparking protests at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters in Abuja.

Another civilian staff of the ministry, Mr Ifeanyi Onuamegbu, who was attached to the Laboratory Department of the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital (NNRH) in Ojo, Lagos, died on March 31, 2024 in his office after being tortured by some personnel of the Nigerian Navy whose services were procured by a civilian lady with whom he had an altercation.  

It was the failure of the Nigerian government to sack and prosecute senior military officers who gave subtle approval for their men to attack and kill policemen and civilians in the past that emboldened NAF personnel to carry out the criminal assault on Ikeja Electric.

One wonders if the Nigerian government is waiting for soldiers to invade a government house before a senior officer is publicly sanctioned for the lawlessness of officers and men under his command.

What was the issue on their invasion and attack on Ikeja Electric – N4billion unpaid electricity bills. The company is not government-owned, but a private entity. It buys and distributes power to millions of Lagosians and has huge overheads. If NAF Base can be owing N4billion, it is imagined how much others are owing.

The era of free power is long gone. Instead of thinking on how to structure the debt and be paying gradually, they resorted to invasion and attacks.

The actions of the NAF personnel are not only despicable, but totally unacceptable. It can discourage investors from investing in the country.

In his reaction to the Ikeja Electric incident, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, in a statement by his Special Adviser, Strategic Communications, Bolaji Tunji, said the attack calls for concern in view of the ramifications.

He noted that the current democratic practice has appropriate channels for conflict resolutions rather than resorting to self-help.

Adelabu insisted that no grievance, no matter how legitimate, justifies the destruction of public infrastructure or violence against civilians.

But beyond mere condemnations, Nigeria’s political leadership should dismiss and prosecute senior military officers behind the mayhem at Ikeja Electric before they truncate Nigeria’s democracy