Civilian staff of the Ministry of Defence shut down headquarters of ministry in Abuja over alleged brutalization of their members .

Civilian staff of the Ministry of Defence under the umbrella of the Joint Executive Council, have shut down the headquarters of the ministry in Abuja over alleged brutalization of their members by soldiers.

The President of the Council, Didam Joel, said a civilian staff of the ministry has been under detention for a month by military authorities, even though he is not a military personnel.

Joel added that an assistant director of the ministry working at Command Secondary School, Ojo, in Lagos, was equally brutalised yesterday without recourse to civil service rules.

The joint executive council is made up of all affiliate unions of civilian staff working in the Ministry of Defence.

While the Army has yet to release an official statement about the allegation, however, one of the unionists in the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) in the army, Abuja, told newsmen, that one of the civilians brutalised on Monday by a private soldier headed by one Lt Akubor, was Ambrose Akhigbe.

The victim is to be currently in the hospital.