For allegedly using his vehicle to damage a newly constructed road in Enugu State, a truck driver, Okechukwu Ofor, has been hospitalized following severe brutality allegedly by a team of policemen in the state.
The policemen, who are three in number and attached to a construction firm, Eketeson Resources Nigeria Limited, one of the firms undertaking the rehabilitation of roads in Enugu State, beat Ofor to coma and inflicted degrees of grievous injuries on his body
Ofor, who is working with an estate company, Toshel Nigeria Limited, was said to have been later dumped at the Independence Layout Police Station by the policemen before the cops disappeared.
It was learnt that some good-spirited policemen took him to the police clinic at the state Police headquarters in Enugu where the doctors battled to save his life.
Okechukwu, from his hospital bed, explained that except for the policemen who brought him to the police clinic, probably he would not have lived to tell the story.
According to him, the three policemen whom he said were ordered to brutalize him by the Managing Director of the Construction firm, one Donald Ekete, dumped him at the police station hoping that he would not survive to tell what happened by the following day.
Ofor said, “The policemen used their gunboat and muzzle to hit me in the head, waist, knee joint, and all over my body and when they felt I might not survive the brutality, they carried me and dumped me at a police station. It was a good officer that took me to the police clinic. Save for the policeman who brought me to the police clinic, I don’t think I would have been alive till today.”
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the Estate Company, Toshel Nigeria Limited where Ofor works, Tochukwu Nzekwe has written a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Police Command, Kanayo Uzuegbu, demanding justice for his staff.
The petition dated May 31, 2024 and titled: “Criminal Complaint Against Mr. Donald Ekete- MD Eketson Construction Company for Assault Occasioning Grievous Bodily Harm, Torture, Attempted Murder and Police Brutality,” was signed by his lawyer, C.V. Uzor.
The petition reads, “It is our client brief that sometimes on the 29th day of May 2024 at about 7-8 p.m hours, one of his drivers who drive one of his trucks was on duty conveying stones from Isi-agu to Independence Layout when his driver had an accident along Artisan flyover and the two tyres of the truck busted. It took the grace of God and the skilled driver to control the truck to the side of the main road and get the truck to a controlled halt.
“That immediately the truck was controlled to a halt, two armed police officers attached to Donald Ekete, the MD of the Eketson Construction Company forced the truck door open and dragged the driver forcefully out of the truck. The suspects hit our client’s driver severally with planks on the body.
“The officers also slapped him severely that he was unable to see. They severely tortured him to the point that he was losing his breadth and they carried him and wanted to put him inside a tricycle and take him to an unknown destination probably to kill him and dump his lifeless body.
“It was at this point that our client arrived at the scene of the heinous act and confronted the suspect and the officers attached to him and resisted them from taking the driver away.
“After several arguments, the suspects then took the driver who was gasping for breath to the Independence Layout Police Station, dumped him there and left.
“After hitting our client’s driver severally on his body which opens injuries on the driver’s body, the suspect then ordered the officers attached to him to beat up our client’s driver mercilessly.
“That the police officer threw our client’s driver to the floor stripped him naked and forced him to roll on the ground on his bare body while beating and hitting him with planks and other dangerous weapons. As they were torturing him and rolling him on the floor, they were equally pouring him water simultaneously.
“That the officers continued hitting him in his waist region, his back, the joint of his two hands, his head, with the head of their guns severally. It took good officers of the Independence Layout Police Station to at about 11-midnight who brought our client’s wounded body to the Police Clinic at the State CID where he is being taken care of.
“That since the victim was brought and admitted to the Police Clinic at the State CID; the suspects have never called nor visited the victim to know how he is recovering. That the victim sustained severe injuries both internally and externally and is still in severe pain.
“We urge you, (Uzuegbu) to use your good offices to investigate the suspects and ensure that justice is done.”
Reacting to the allegation, Ekete claimed that Ofor was mobbed to a stupor by some irate residents because he allegedly used the axle drum of the truck to damage a newly constructed road slated for commissioning by the state governor, Peter Mbah.
“Sad moment at the newly asphalted road along a new artisan flyover by Eketeson Construction Company as a truck driver deliberately damaged the road set to be commissioned by the Governor of Enugu State.
“We were alerted about some minutes to 10 p.m that a heavily loaded truck without tyre and rim was destructively running on the just finished asphalt road at a high speed but couldn’t continue any further because of the barricades mounted at the other side of the road.
“We quickly hurried back to the scene area, only to see some angry mobs heartily touched by his unscrupulous act already beating the driver.
“We also discovered that he had actually damaged the freshly laid asphalt, a road that was ready for commissioning the next day being the 29th May 2024, by the executive governor of Enugu State, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah because he ran speedily on the road with only axle drum of the truck.
“We went closer to ask how it all happened, and were told by the truck driver that he had a busted and deflated tyre on his way back from Ugwuaji community and called his manager to inform him of the ugly situation on the ground, but was instructed by the manager to bring back the truck to their yard by any means possible at all cost which prompted him to embark on the careless journey of damaging the newly laid asphalt.
“So he had to drive the truck all the way from Ugwuaji down to Independence Layout flyover, damaging the just concluded road,” he said.
