By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

A nonprofit making organisation, One Love Foundation, OLF, Friday, condemned alleged molestation of students of University of Benin, UNIBEN, by Nigerian Army at an Automated Teller Machine, ATM, in Benin.

In a statement signed by the Founder and President, OLF, Chief Patrick Eholor, which according to Eholor, the military men bypassed the long queue at the ATM to make use of the machine, while the students who were orderly in the queue resisted the military men, because they bypassed the queue, which altercations started.

He said: “Some unidentified military men in uniform attached to the S&T barracks Ugbowo allegedly caused disruption and molested students of the University of Benin. This however happened at one of the University’s functional Automated Teller Machines.

“Pandemonium however started when the military men bypassed the long queue at the ATM to make use of the Machine, the students who were orderly in the queue resisted the military men because they bypassed the queue and altercations started.

“It was said that some military personnel had oppressively repeated the same thing on Wednesday and when the students tried to resist them, the military men asked the student to lie on the floor and subjected the student to all kinds of inhumane treatment.

“While the tussle was ongoing between the military personnel and the student, the Chief Security Officer of UNIBEN moved in to calm the situation, he also got assaulted by the soldiers. This assault by the military men escalated the situation as the students pounced on the soldiers with one of them sustaining injury.”

He continued, “Later at night around 1 am gunshot were heard around the Main Gate of UNIBEN and a loud whistle sound were heard, report reach out to us that Unidentified Military men invaded the school at night Jumping through the school fence at night to destroy cars and fire truck, with one of UNIBEN security badly injured by the unknown military men.

He added, “Recall that 8 years ago, the Patrol car of the Nigerian Army hit two students of the University of Benin at the Ugbowo Main Gate, two the student name: Miss Rita Awele and Efe both of them 200 level of the Department of Philosophy. They were on their way from Church within the school when the patrol vehicle hit them from behind.

“It is high time relevant authorities step into this case to restructure the Military and the policemen and by extension all the security structure of the country, these people are meant to protect the civilians and not brutalize us.

“These actions by the military are highly condemnable, in a civilized world the military are found in barracks they have no business with the civilians, and the barracks should be well equipped with basic and social amenities.

“In all of these, the CBN is to be held responsible for this action, if the new Naira notes were to be in circulation none of these would happen. We the people of Nigeria would not allow it to happen again, injustice done to one person is done to all”, he said.