- Safiu Kehinde
A middle-aged woman has called out the Nigerian Army over alleged demand of N2 million before the release of her late brother’s body.
The lady, in a video shared on X on Wednesday, disclosed that her brother passed away at a military barrack in Benin after brief illness.
His family’s efforts to secure the release of his body however proved abortive as the army allegedly demandeed N2 million before transporting the corpse home.
According to the lady, the deceased soldier had been in the military for over 20 years.
“You people gave him one week to come back home and see his Mummy in December period. He came.
“What pains me the most is that this my brother is an army man. He has been serving since he was 20. He has been serving. Now he is in Benin, he was sick and he died.
“They said they cannot bring his corpse home till the family send N2 million to the army before they will bring his corpse that if we do not send N2 million, they are not going to bring his million.” She said.
The lady showed the spot where her deceased brother was planned to be buried which was adjacent the grave of his father who was also claimed to be a soldier.
“Our father who was buried here was an army man.
“Then he died at home and based on my knowledge, if you die as an army person and you are still serving, they will provide a vehicle that wiil carry your corpse all the way from wherever you are and they will bring you back home for your people to bury.
“I don’t know that the system has spoiled and changed to another thing that they could not bring his corpse. We just cleared the place to bury him.
“But now they are telling us that they cannot bring his corpse unless we send money to carry our brother’s corpse from Benin.” She said.
The lady further disclosed how the family had decided to sponsor the transportation of the body from the morgue to their hometown themselves.
They contacted the army to inform them about the plan.
However, the army allegedly told the family that the arraignment will imply that no compensation will be paid to them once the body is taken from the military base.
“We told them that since you people said you cannot fuel your car that the expenses is N2 million and we don’t have that, you people should release the corpse so that we will look for normal bus that will carry him.
“They said if they release the corpse and the corpse immediately stepped out of Benin, anything about our brother is none of their business again which means that if they give us the corpse and we provide the money to bring it home, the money and everything he has back there will not be released to us.” She added.
No official statement has been released by the army to confirm the allegation.