Onitsha police batter, strip rights Activist

Policemen of Onitsha Police Area Command, Anambra state, yesterday battered and stripped an Onitsha based human rights activist, Comrade Justus Ijeoma.

Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the Onitsha Area Command Policemen, Ijeoma who is the executive director of International Human Rights and Equity Defence Foundation (I-REF) said he escaped death by whiskers.

Ijeoma who was rushed to Onitsha General Hospital on the orders of the Area Commander, Yahaya Abubakar, due to the beating he received, said his cousin, Emeka Onyemaobi, told him of a woman who borrowed N 200,000 from him and pledged to pay back after two weeks since 2016 but up till now failed to pay.

“At the expiration of two weeks, the woman could not pay the money and the issue lingered for months before she issued my cousin with a cheque which was dishonored by the bank.

My cousin consequently lodged the case with Onitsha Police Area Command and I came to know why she should give him a bounced cheque he said .

According toIjeoma instead of the Investigation Police Officer (IPO), one Mr Chinedu, to find out why the cheque was dishonored, he told my cousin that he would recover the money from her but that he would collect 10 per cent interest of the money in question.

The position of the IPO did not go down well with the complainant who did not come to Police to recover debt but reported a criminal matter and he alerted the activist who on arrival at the Police command at about 10 am waited the debtor for another hour but was nowhere in sight.

But he was shocked that the IPO was brief for the alleged debtor citing “African time” which infuriated Ijeoma who had a heated argument with the IPO before one Onyilo, an Assistant Superintendent (ASP),who was said to be Station Officer ordered him out of the Command.

However, when Ijeoma queried why he should be ordered out, Onyiloh was said to have ordered the Policemen to manhandle him and they immediately they pounced on him, battered and stripped him.

He said, “ The beat me out to the gate, then beat me back and wanted to throw me into cell before I resisted. It was at that juncture that the Area Commander ordered them to bring me to his office.

By then I was already dazed. I was staggered to his office because of the beating and the the Area Commander asked them to allow me ”to continue to dramatize” .

He “I told him that I was not dramatizing that I was in pains and could not freely work because of the beating”.
It was at this point that he ordered that I should be taken to the hospital for treatment.

When newsmen went to the Area Command to ascertain the side of the Police from the Area Commander, he was said to have gone out of office and would not be back till late in the evening.