(George Onyejiuwa, OWERRI)
Imo state Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has been dragged to court for allegedly ordering his aides to beat up Anthony Amadi and Chigozie Oparaku, who were in the Compound of Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho, when the Governor arrived with a demolition squad that demolished part of Iheanacho’s compound.
This was just as the victims are asking the court to award them N50 million in damages for the varying degrees of injuries that they sustain during the brutal assault by the Governor’s Aides.
The duo said that their only crime was that they had brandished an order of the Federal High court, Owerri restraining the Governor from demolishing Ihenacho’s property,that rather the governor ordered his security details to beat them up.
According to him, “About an hour later, the Imo state Governor, Rochas Okorocha in company of his full security detail came to Captain Ihenacho’s house and the Governor ordered the engineer to demolish Ihenacho’s house, we then went towards the Governor as much as the security details would allow us and showed him the court order, thereupon, the Governor ordered his security details to beat us up and arrest us,” Amadi narrated.
In an affidavit deposed to by Anthony Amadi, he said that on the 7th of July, 2016, while at Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho’s house, they noticed agents of the Imo state government advancing towards Ihenacho’s house with heavy equipment and with intent to demolish the property. They approached the engineer in-charge of the demolition and showed a copy of the restraining order against the said demolition and the Engineer obeyed and withdrew his equipment.
The victims recalled that they were beaten for over half an hour by more than 20 security details of the governor just for daring to show them a restraining order of court against their illegal action.
“At the end, we could hardly stand or walk, and they carried us and dumped us at the Shell Camp Police Station without any medical treatment,” Oparaku they submitted.
Amadi’s left eye still have blood clots and opens with difficulty while Oparaku has an ugly lump on his back all sustained after the beating.
They also said that in spite of the fact that the Imo state Police Commissioner had duly acknowledged a petition by their Lawyer Amadi Obi against the Imo state Governor,that they were dumped in the Shell Camp Police cell without treatment.
“Receipt of the petition was acknowledged the next day, yet the commissioner refused to release us to seek medical care instead we were transferred from Shell Camp Police Station to Owerri Area Command at Fire Service.
We were released on the fourth day without any charge against us. We were only told that we were detained on the orders of Governor Rochas Okorocha and that was exactly what was written on the incident board.”
However, the Chief Press Secretary to the Imo state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo said that the Governor has not been served with any court summons.