JUST IN: Nigerian Soldiers 'kill' young man who ran to them for help after escaping kidnap

Military men at the railway checkpoint in Igbanke, Edo State have been accused of killing a boy, Christian Konor Ehime, who had escaped from kidnappers. 

A police officer in Agbo, Delta State, Ehima Mercy and the mother of the murdered boy, told Foundation for Investigative Journalism.

Mercy said she met Konor in a terrible state after the soldiers had allegedly assaulted and left him to die on a dusty road. He eventually died in a hospital.

On December 10, Konor left the house of one of his cousins, who was to get married the following day, for his mother’s house. It was meant to be a 35-minute journey. But on getting to the bus stop at 5 pm, there was hardly any bus.

Mercy called around 7:30 pm to ask his son why he had yet to get home, but the voice she heard on the phone was not his.

“I asked them, ‘Who are you?’ And they claimed to be soldiers stationed at the railway checkpoint between Igbanke and Epon. I introduced myself as a police officer and I asked them where my son was,” she said.

“The soldiers did not say they had beaten him but claimed my son had dragged their guns with them (to struggle to take possession). I began to plead with the soldiers not to touch him. Then they asked me to come and see them.”

When Mercy got to the soldiers, she thanked them and collected Konor’s phone from them. After delaying her for a while, they showed her where her son was.

“When I saw my son, dust was all over him. So one may not recognise him. He was only in his boxers. They did not give me his trousers; I knew it was because they wanted to tell a different story to the police,” she said.

According to FIJ, the soldiers made videos of her when she went to see her son and said he displayed signs of lunacy. Konor struggled to meet his mother on hearing her voice, but he couldn’t stand upright. His legs had been broken and he had sustained heavy injuries to his spine due to the soldiers’ beating.

“Seeing how my son was, I pleaded with them to use their van to take him to a nearby hospital, but they refused because I am a police officer. I immediately called my family doctor, who then took another hour before he got to Igbanke,” she said.

“I looked at my son and every part of his body was covered with clay. He was half-conscious and his eyes were dim. He was heavy. I then pleaded again with the soldiers to lend us their van.”

When they got to the hospital, Konor woke up after he had received two bags of drip. He asked his mother for food but the doctor stopped her from giving him, saying he was bleeding internally.