Soldiers detained like animals in 30-foot underground hole

The story coming out of the military detention facility for the officers accused of plotting against President Tinubu is utterly disgraceful. Family members have come out to say the men are being kept 30 feet underground, served food so bad that even dogs would refuse to eat it, and exposed to a radiation-emitting device that is causing them to lose their sight. One officer, Captain M.L. Muhammad, reportedly collapsed with convulsions and seizures during detention, forcing the court-martial to stall last Wednesday.

According to a relative of one of the detained officers, the authorities are deliberately refusing to release him because he keeps saying he will expose what is happening inside. The same relative said the men are being forced to read prepared statements under duress, pressured to confess to a plot they may have had nothing to do with. And lawyers are scared to represent them. Let that sink in — lawyers are afraid to take up the case of military officers in a Nigerian military court.

This is not about whether there was a coup plot or not. This is about how we treat human beings while they are presumed innocent until proven guilty. If the government is so afraid of these officers that they have to starve them, radiate them, and bury them alive underground, then maybe the government knows something it is not telling us. Who will hold the Defence Intelligence Agency accountable for what is happening in that hole?