FRSC official petitions IG, alleges threat to life

[MrVan]

By VINCENT UJUMADU

AWKA—A SPECIAL Marshal, Dr. Olusegun Sogbesan, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar and the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ballah Nasarawa over an alleged assault and threat to life by the caretaker committee chairman of Idemili North Local Government area of Anambra State, Chief Raphael Nnabuife.

The council boss was alleged to have ordered his security aides to beat up Sogbesan and his wife for allegedly resisting his order during revenue drive in the area.

But Nnabuife has denied the allegation, saying that he never ordered anyone to beat up the couple as he only tried to settle a misunderstanding between one lady and some revenue officials when he went to supervise the ejection of street traders in Nkpor area of the local government.

He said it was at that time that one man who was later identified as the husband of the lady, started fighting officials of the local government without bothering to know what was happening.

In the petition to the IG and CP, which was also copied to the Anambra State director of the State Security Service, SSS, the couple appealed for a thorough investigation into the matter.

Narrating the incident, Sogbesan said that he received a distress call from his wife that she was held hostage by a group of boys along the Onitsha-Enugu expressaway while he was on a patrol duty as a special marshal, adding that when he got to the place, he saw a crowd surrounding his wife about 50 metres from where she parked her car.

He said: "I asked my wife what the problem was and she explained that she stopped by the market and bought some bottled water and engaged a wheel barrow pusher to convey same to her car, when some youths accosted her and demanded that she pay N100. When she asked why she should pay the money, she was beaten thoroughly and they destroyed all the things she bought.

"I humbly told them that I am a Youruba man and that the woman they were beating is my wife, who happens to be their sister from Anambra and told them that I have been their in-law for about 15 years. It was then that one them standing in front of me asked why I still had the boldness to talk to them.

"I was brutally assaulted while my wife, who was still held by the men, watched helplessly. The humiliation and maltreatment meted out to me and the psychological trauma were too much. Their action conveyed tribal sentiment and bias, but this is a state I have lived in, served and contributed my quota for 22 years and I wonder why I should be treated this way".

Sogbesan said it was good spirited individuals that later rescued them from the hands of the boys.

Vanguard Nigeria