There is furore in Enugu State over the alleged barbaric attack on two residents of the State, Mohammed Koma and Haruna Koma by officials of the Enugu State Waste Management Authority, ESWAMA.
DAILY POST recalls that officials of the agency were also in the recent past involved in the alleged killing of a secondary school student at Abakpa Nike, Enugu.
This time, Mohammed and Koma are now incapacitated following an encounter with ESWAMA officials.
A group, the Civil Rights Realization and Advancement Network (CRRAN), while reacting to the development through its President, Barr. Olu Omotayo called on Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, to urgently end the impunity being perpetrated by the agency.
In a press statement made available to DAILY POST on Monday, Omotayo said, “the continuous deterioration of human rights situation in Enugu reached its’ peak last Friday the 23rd October 2015, when the dreaded Environmental fees collection outfit of the Enugu state government caught up with two citizens in the course of their revenue drive and in broad daylight used shovel and heavy iron rods to break and shatter the ankles and knee cap bone of the duo reminiscent of the pre civilization era of barbarity.
“This is the worst human right abuse we ever recorded in modern day Nigerian history. Two citizens of this great country were caught like animal in a trap and the agents of the state used heavy metal to pieces their legs and rendered them incapacitated.
“We have written severally to the Governor of the state that the mode of operations of this agency are not only barbaric but dangerous to healthy survival of any decent democratic society but the government looked the other way just because it believes in the revenue collection for the state irrespective of the mode of collection overrides the entrenched fundamental rights of the citizens of the state.”
Giving details on the incident, Omatoyo disclosed that the officials went on revenue drive to No. 23, Mbaukwu Street, Independence Layout, Enugu, where they met Mohammed Koma and Haruna Koma, who are gateman at the estate.
“They asked for evidence of payment of sanitation fees but the two gatemen told them that their boss, the owner of the estate was not around but they could enter the estate and ask any question they might want to ask the occupants.
“They then asked Mohammed Koma to give them his boss’s phone number; as he came out of the security house going to where he plugged his phone, they rushed him and attempted to forcefully carry him into their waiting bus, but he resisted and they left.
“Mohammed locked the gate and went into the estate to his boss’s apartment to take his bath. Unknowingly to the two gatemen, the ESWAMA officials had gone for reinforcement to get more of their colleagues and they came back in two buses.
“They jumped over the gate of the estate, where they met the two gatemen. They gave them the beating of their lives and thereafter used shovel and heavy iron rods on them, broke the bones of their legs while helpless onlookers watched from a distance.
“Mohammed’s ankle bone was broken while Haruna was unlucky as the knee cap of one of his leg was broken and the ankle of the other leg shattered.
“Alas! What a barbarity, in a society where there is a government in place but the governor continue to protect and pamper these hoodlums despite the fact that they are terror to the society.
“The attackers later went to Independence Layout Police Station to incident a report that some people attacked them at Mbaukwu Street, Independence Layout. The leader of the team that carried out this dastardly act wrote his name as Nnamdi Ugborgu, while making the report at Independence Layout police Station.
“No common man in the state has not in one way or the other suffered in the hands of this agency of government, which operates with impunity. Common man and the middle class in the society groan daily due to the assault on their rights by the agency. Women and men are at times dragged naked to the ESWAMA premises and kept in the unlawful barbed wired unlawful detention center within the premises.
“It would be recollected that two years ago, officials of ESWAMA murdered a 17 year old young man at Abakpa, Enugu State, during their revenue drive.”
While describing the operations of the ESWAMA as illegal and unconstitutional, he further re-called that a Federal High Court, Enugu, presided over by Justice D.V. Agishi gave judgment against the agency over the torture, humiliation, dehumanization and unlawful detention of a citizen Miss Nma Ukonu.
“The Learned Judge Further held that the fact that ESWAMA officials as agents and workers of the Enugu-State government, did not justify their actions in slapping, kicking, dragging and further ordering the detention of the applicant, on the ground that the organization she works with has not paid waste management fee.
“The Court further held that the argument of the lawyer to ESWAMA, that the agency was acting under Section 28(1) of ESWAMA Law, Cap 75, of the Revised Law of Enugu State 2004, cannot justify the infringement.
“The court held that ‘The right to personal liberty of every Nigerian citizen is fully guaranteed under our Constitution. This right is almost sacrosanct and can only be curtailed as strictly provided for in the Constitution’.
“With the judgment, we thought that the agency will change positively in its’ operations but alas the reverse is the case as the government through the State Ministry of Justice filed a Notice of Appeal, and the reign of terror continued”, he stated.
In the petition to the NHRC, Omotayo demanded the “intervention of the state government to stop these atrocities of its’ agents, failure of which we shall lay complaint before both national and International Human Rights Institutions to compel the state government to immediately disband its’ killer squad known as ESWAMA.
“The state government should obey the decision of the Federal High Court Enugu in UKONU V. OGAUKWU, SUIT NO: FHC/EN/M/ 133/2012, and order these agencies to respect the fundamental rights of the citizens in their operations.”
He further demanded “immediate removal of the Managing Director ESWAMA and Mr. Nnamani the head of operations of ESWAMA, who the Federal High Court condemned his attack and dehumanization of Miss. Uma Ukonu, as he still persisted and leads the continuous assault on the innocent citizens of Enugu State under the guise of collecting revenue for the state.
“The state Police Command should immediately withdraw policemen who follow these ESWAMA thugs to dehumanize the citizens of the state.
“The two policemen, who follow the attackers of Mohammed and Haruna to the scene of the attack and watched as the ESWAMA thugs dehumanized the two citizens should be arrested and prosecuted.
“The immediate arrest and prosecution of the Managing Director of ESWAMA, Mr. Prosper Nnamani, and Nnamdi Ugborgu who led the team of thugs who incapacitated Mohammed and Haruna. Arrest and prosecution of all the culprits, who perpetrated this dastardly act. The immediate dismantling of the unlawful detention center within ESWAMA premises.”
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