Vincent Mama got into a scuffle with VIO officers only to end up in a hospital, after which he was imprisoned, charged to court for public incitement and is now longing for his freedom. JAMES UWEM writes.
Some officers of the Vehicle Inspection Office VIO recently took their campaign to sanitize the highways to a brutal height when they manhandled a lorry driver who incurred their wrath.
The driver, Vincent Mama, was not only beaten black and blue, he was also stripped naked in the densely populated and busy Nyanya Expressway. Mama who could not stand the humiliation has taken the case before the law to seek redress.
Mama was said to be coming from Enugu State to deliver some goods in Abuja when he ran into the hands of the VIO officers who descended on him without provocation and nearly snuffed the life out of him using their belts and an iron object to beat him, for the timely intervention of some traders who witnessed the assualt.
The incident which occurred in broad day light turned violent as shop owners at the Kugbo Furniture Market, in sheer sympathy with the driver intervened to save him from further humiliation and possible death.
The traders in annoyance held a peaceful protest and barricaded the Nyanya expressway making movements on the road to come to a total halt for hours
When LEADERSHIP SUNDAY arrived at the scene of the incident, the VIO officers had abandoned their Toyota Helux with registration number RT 56 CT and scampered for safety, leaving the unconscious victim writhing in pains.
An eye witness who gave his name as Innocent told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that? he saw about six men struggling with the driver and later resorted to beating him with belt and Iron objects, his cloth torn and the driver fell to the ground.
“It is so barbaric, whatever could have been his offence, there could have been? a civilized way of apprehending the driver,” Innocent? stressed.
It took the intervention of the mobile police officers who fired gunshots in the air to disperse the angry protesters before calm was restored. The policemen in the midst of the crises whisked away the driver to the Karu police station and placed him under detention.
LEADERSHIP? SUNDAY investigations reveal that the wounded driver was remanded in police custody without any treatment but was taken to the hospital about midnight when it was obvious that the victim may likely give up the ghost.
The Divisional Crimes Officer (DCO) in charge of the station, Mr. Ibe Ojukwu, told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that he has spent a large sum of money to treat and revive him.? The DCO also complained that those operatives of the VIO, who were supposed to be the complainant in the case, have not shown up again since that first appearance at the station.
The victim was however released midnight on the following day. A police source hinted that police had to release him in-order not to contravene the 24 hour detention order.
Narrating his ordeal after he was released, Mama said, “they asked me to stop and I stopped. They asked for my particulars which I gave to them. The VIO men complained that my registration number was Enugu and my particulars were all registered in Enugu. They said since I was doing business in Abuja, I have to do the Abuja particulars.
“At that point, they took my keys and forcefully started driving my lorry. I ask them? where they are taking me to but they refused to talk, so I held the steering and all of them descended on me, beat me and dragged me on the road? all my cloths pulled off and I was naked and became unconscious.
That was when people who thought I was dead came to my rescue. In that unconscious state, the people who came to save me? became angry and had to block the road to protest my? being manhandled ”.
The lorry driver who could not hold back tears spoke on his ordeal in the police station. He lamented how he was dumped inside a cell room in his terrible condition and despite the excruciating pains he was going through.
When LEADERSHIP SUNDAY visited the VIO office in Mabushi a senior official, Mr. Okereke Alex, who spoke on the issue averred that the driver may have violated the no-movement order for trucks by FCTA which starts from 6 AM to 10 AM in the morning and 4 PM to 10 PM in the evening. Alex also said it was the truck driver that also injured himself to attract sympathy from the public.
FCT police spokesman Mr. Jimoh Moshood who spoke with our reporter on phone confirmed the incident and insisted that the case would be charged to court. “We are still investigating the incident, it is left for the court to determine who is guilty; if it’s the VIO or the driver,” Jimoh affirmed.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY also sought to confirm from the spokesman of the FCT minister, Mr. Nosike Ogbuenyi, whether the minister ordered the VIO officers to manhandle motorists. He declined comments but said he did not believe the VIO men could be so uncivil in carrying out their duties. He however, added that the minister did not order any VIO personnel to be ruthless with Abuja drivers.
The driver after his release from the police detention became stranded in Abuja as he could not return to Enugu State since his truck was impounded and was towed to the VIO office . However, respite came his way as a human right lawyer, Barr. Innocent Nwufo, who was informed about Mama’s predicament offered to render free legal services to the victim.
The lawyer in trying to get Mama? out of his predicament wrote a petition to the Inspector General of Police, the FCT Commissioner of Police and the VIO,? seeking their interventions and the release of his impounded lorry so he could continue his business to sustain his family.
The gesture of the human rights lawyer infuriated the police authority who which immediately went and re-arrested Mama. They also promptly arraigned him in Karu Magistrate court, charging him for inciting the public against the VIO.
The court granted him bail to Mama but the police insisted that he must produce a top civil servant to bail him. The police did not waste any time to convey him to prison in Keffi, Nassarawa State, after it became apparent that he could not provide any civil servant of that calibre to sign the bail bond for him since he does not know anybody in Abuja.?
His lawyer was still making frantic efforts to get a civil servant to bail him when the police quickly whisked him away to the Keffi Prison where his is still languishing.
The lawyer told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the police refused to release the medical reports of? the driver’s? treatment and also refused giving out the photographs of his wounded body as well as the x-rays that were done in the hospital? in spite of request.
Mama, it was learnt, has been complaining of vomiting blood and dizziness in prison. “
The doctor demanded that I should? be taken to a specialist hospital for serious medical investigations? to ascertain the extent of damage in my body but the police refused,? I hoped to treat myself? well soon as I leave this prison.” He lamented.