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The Aide-de-Camp to the Imo State
Governor Rochas Okorocha, Mr. Omo Gabriel, and two other police officers on
Saturday, allegedly beat up a policeman attached the state government house for
delaying in opening the gate for the governor’s convoy.
The incident, which occurred around
12:30am, when the governor returned from his wife’s birthday party, left the
victim unconscious.
The mobile policeman, Corporal Itere
Ewedor, was said to have been on duty at the security post when the governor’s
convoy drove in.
Efforts to speak to Ewedor on
Saturday were not successful as he was said to be resting but his friend, Mr.
David Edhie, confirmed the incident.
He told SUNDAY PUNCH that after hearing the hooting of the
horn from the governor’s convoy, the policeman opened the gate only for the
ADC, a superintendent of police, and two other senior police officers to
descend on him.
He said, “When the governor’s convoy
got to the gate, the men of the civil defence corps and members of the Imo
orientation corps, who were supposed to open the gate, were not around. So,
there was a delay. Then my friend went to open the gate.
“When the convoy drove in, the ADC
and some other police officers came down and asked him why he delayed. They
wanted to collect his gun, but he refused. So, they started beating him. They
beat him until he became unconscious, with bruises all over his face and parts
of his body.”
Edhie added that the ADC took Ewedor,
in his unconscious state, to Shell Camp Police Station and requested that he be
detained.
He said, “The police officers at the
station refused. They said they could not detain someone that was dying. Then
Gabriel made arrangements for Ewedor to be taken to the Federal Medical Centre
Owerri, where he was admitted. After sometime, he regained consciousness.”
SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that Ewedor, was discharged from the hospital
around 5pm on Saturday.
Edhie said the ADC had made frantic
efforts to get Ewedor discharged from the hospital, because sympathisers,
including journalists, were visiting the the place.
When contacted, the state
Commissioner for Information and Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on
Media, Mr. Chinedu Offor, refuted the report.
He said, “The ADC to Governor
Okorocha is a true professional, there is no way he could have descended so low
to physically assault somebody. In order not to scare people away, we use men
of the civil defence corps at the gate. We don’t use policemen at the gates of
the government house. So, if anybody says a policeman was beaten up for refusing
to open the gate, it is false. I was at the government house around 12:30am.
Such a thing never happened.”