Soldiers from a yet-to-be ascertained barracks allegedly stormed the home of a 78-year-old professor of optometry/gynaecology, Chike Anamdi, on October 27, around 3am, and assaulted him and his security guard.

According to Anamdi, he was asleep when the soldiers invaded his small estate, The Doctor’s Place, on Orisunmbare Street by the Transformer bus stop in the Shasha area of Lagos State.

He added that the security guard called him on the telephone to inform him that some soldiers were banging the gate of the estate.

Narrating his ordeal, Anamdi said he asked the soldiers to come back around 8am, but they continued banging the gate until they forced it open and headed for a flat occupied by a young man.

The professor explained that the soldiers, who had assaulted the security man, also pushed him out of the way.

He said he initially refused to give the young man the flat, because he considered him too young at around 17 or 18, but he yielded when the young man presented his uncle, who signed the tenancy agreement.

Anamdi stated, “Around 3am on October 27, 2019, the security man, Baba Sule, called me and said there were soldiers at the gate. I asked him what they were doing there at that time and he said they were trying to force it open.

“So, I went down to the security post and noticed that the soldiers had already forced their way into the compound; it is a small estate. When I asked of their mission in my estate, they said somebody sent them to remove some things from a flat.

“I told them that that was not the way to do things and asked them to come back around 8am, but they pushed me away not minding my age.

“I left the place and went back to bed and around 6am, I asked the security guard what transpired after I had gone inside. He said they hit him, pushed him aside, broke the gate and entered the premises, removed some items from the young man’s flat and left.

“I discovered that it was the tenant, whom I have been in court with for the N400,000 worth of damage he did to my property and his refusal to pay the outstanding rent and utility bills.

“After the incident, whenever I called the tenant, he would not pick my calls.”

The professor said when he was on a vacation in the United States of America, the young tenant allegedly climbed the roof of his apartment, broke the roof and installed some things on it without his consent.

He added that he sued the tenant to court for vandalising his property and his lawyer was handling the matter before the latest incident.

According to him, he reported the incident at the Idimu Police Station, but was told that the police could not do anything about it since the attack was carried out by military personnel.

Anamdi said he had not seen the tenant since he disappeared from the house before the invasion by the soldiers, adding that his request for the police to trace him to the gas station, where he claimed to be working when he wanted to rent the flat, was not heeded.

He added that the police said they could not ascertain the actual location of the gas station.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bala Elkana, did not answer calls to his mobile telephone line and had yet to respond to a text message sent to him on the matter as of the time of going to press.