A Nigerian soldier has brutally battered a commercial bus driver for more than half an hour leaving him fighting for his life as he boasted he can kill the man and no one will query him.

The Nigerian Soldier brutally assaulting the bus driver

A Nigerian soldier has boasted that he will kill a bus driver and nobody will query him as he battered the man for allegedly sneering at him. The soldier identified as Emmanuel B.J battered the bus driver identified as Mr. Moshood Olaniyi, so terribly for close to 45 minutes at the Ojodu-Berger Motor Park in Lagos State.

The assault started when the soldier alleged that Olaniyi wanted to hit him with his car while reversing. He pounced on Olaniyi and thrashed him with horse whip before he used his fists to punch him for more than 30 minutes as he re-arranged the man's face.

The soldier then seized the man's car key and dragged him out of the car before using every weapon he could get to batter the man. As people begged, he intensified the beating.

The soldier held Olaniyi’s waistband and threatened to kill the driver boasting that nobody would query him if he killed the driver.

When the crowd urged the soldier to state the driver’s offence, Emmanuel B.J. slapped Olaniyi again for more than 12 times, Punch reported.

He said, “Who does he think he is? I will kill him and nobody will query me. I have killed many people who are older than this idiot (Olaniyi) in the past and nobody queried me for that.

“The idiot attempted to hit me while reversing his vehicle and when I asked him why, he just sneered at me. If at all he is older than me, I don’t care. I will do to him what he will never forget for the rest of his life.”

Emmanuel dragged Olaniyi like an ordinary thief to the park of commercial motorcycle operators, a distance of about 50 metres, before he released him after much pleading that lasted for about 45 minutes by eyewitnesses and other motorists.

Olaniyi, who could hardly open his mouth to talk because of his swollen lips after the soldier released him, denied that he sneered at the soldier.

According to him, he was reversing his vehicle when the soldier suddenly pounced on him.

One of the witnesses, who identified himself simply as Festus, said the beating was too much, adding that he did not expect that Olaniyi could still stand on his feet after the soldier released him.

Festus said it was the beating that drew his attention from where he was fixing some mechanical faults in his vehicle.

An eyewitness to the whole savagery and cruelty identified as Festus told the story. He said: "I did not know the cause of the disagreement between Olaniyi and the soldier, but from what I saw, Olaniyi was sitting in his vehicle when the soldier started beating him. I didn’t know whether Olaniyi sneered at the soldier or not.”

Also, a bread seller at the motor park by name Ajoke, said she witnessed the assault from the beginning to the end.

Ajoke said she joined other passersby to beg the soldier to let Olaniyi go when it appeared that he was not ready to stop the beating.

Reacting to the alleged assault, the spokesperson for 82 Division, Nigerian Army, Lagos, Col. Kingsley Samuel, said he is yet to confirm the identity of the soldier, but promised to investigate the assault.

He said, “We don’t know the identity of the soldier. Lagos is a big community; anybody can put on army uniform and impersonate being a soldier. We have had cases of impersonation before, but if any personnel of the organisation I work with commits a crime of that nature, the person will be dealt with.

“We have to find out if Emmanuel is a genuine soldier who is not impersonating. This is one of the things we will investigate. And if he is a soldier, we will find out the unit he belongs to. But I assure you that we will do our investigation.”