A 31-year old trader, Tochukwu Emelahi, is being hospitalised following multiple injuries he sustained when some policemen attached to Awada Police Division, Obosi, Anambra State, allegedly brutalised him for daring to interfere while they maltreated a bus driver.
Residents of N0 1 Chizon Street, Awada, where the victim resides, told journalists that trouble started for Tochukwu during last Saturday’s environmental cleanup exercise when some patrol teams from the Division allegedly engaged in mass arrests and extortion of commuters for violating the sanitation exercise.
In the course of arresting people that morning, the police allegedly descended on a bus driver, Nnaemeka Francis, with bus registration number HAL 347 YG, and teargassed him for refusing to cooperate when Tochukwu who was standing nearby watching the whole scenario interjected asking the police whether they wanted to kill the man. “My offence was that I shouted “Do you want to kill him?”.
They immediately swooped on me asking me what was my business in what they were doing. They hit me with gunbutts, kicked me and pummelled me like a thief being attacked by a mob”, Tochukwu said. Tochukwu said he was able to identify some of the policemen. One of them bore Udeme Effiong; another was Olocbon Sunday and Stanley Oyinna.
He called on the Police authorities to ensure that those who abused him will not go scot free. When the reporter contacted the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Awada Police Station, CSP Babalola Adewuyi, for comments, he said the officers have briefed him that the man in question threw pure water sachet at the police when they were performing their lawful duties but he has ordered for proper investigation over the incident. Meanwhile, the recorded video of the police brutality has since gone viral on the social media platform.
