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RAYMOND OZOJI reports

Honourable Okwudili Anigbogu, a native of Enugwu-Ukwu community in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, would have been a dead man when operatives of the Special Anti-tout squad, Agunechemba operatives, operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps accompanied by daredevil hoodlums unleashed terror and mayhem on him on 23rd December this year.<!--more-->

Anigbogu, a trader at Jesus The King Line, Emordi Shoe Dealers Association in Ochanja market Onitsha, said security operatives who were on illegal duties and allegedly sponsored by one Chief Nwabueze Friday Umeh popularly known as Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija, manhandled him until he was soaked in his own pool of blood as hoodlums hired by Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija matcheted him to the point of death but was rescued and rushed to the hospital by people who witnessed the terror.

Anigbogu who is currently struggling between life and death, told this journalist that one of the NSCDC officers on the illegal duty, particularly hit his head with his gun as they brutalised him beyond recognition on the ill-fated day.

He also added that the police officers who came to intervene were equally beaten to stupor by hoodlums hired by Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija. He said the police officers are currently in the hospital receiving intensive care inorder to save their lives.

According to him, the commotions began when the Onitsha-South Local Government Chairman Hon. Emeka Orji, conducted union election for Emordi Shoe Dealers Association which he won landslide and emerged winner alongside eight others and was issued certificate of return duly signed by Ochanja market central body chairman and the Onitsha-South Local Government mayor.

Anigbogu informed that shortly after his election into office, he proceeded to conduct their monthly market prayer ministrations on 5th December this year but got an intelligence report that Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija has arranged for Anti-tout, Agunechemba operatives and hoodlums to disrupt the monthly devotion.

Armed with such intel, he proceeded to the State Criminal Investigation Department Awka (State CID ) to make an entry and to request for police backup during the monthly devotion which he said he was granted. But he was shocked beyond consternation that on the day of the monthly devotional prayers, men of the Anti-tout squad and Agunechemba operatives stormed the venue destroying chairs and other items to be used for the prayer session.

He said the police officers on ground appealed to them not to fight anyone; insisting that anyone who was not in agreement with the outcome of the union election should go to court rather than orchestrating confusion and rancour in the market.

Anigbogu further disclosed that he got another Intel that Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija and his hired thugs in the company of Anti-tout personnel, Agunechemba security operatives and civil defense officers broke into the Union's office on 19th December this year, destroying items worth millions of naira and carting away valuables on the condition that a caretaker committee has been inaugurated by one Everestus Uba because Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija, according to him, had boasted that he would install his own stooges as members of the caretaker committee as only his preferred candidates would run the Emordi Shoe Dealers Association's leadership.

He said when he got to the Union's office to find out why it was invaded, Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija and the security operatives began to beat him mercilessly to the point that the Anti-tout operatives handcuffed him and whisked him away to their cell at Upper Iweka Onitsha where they tortured him like a common criminal and compelled him and three others to sign an unwarranted undertaking under duress.

He said he went to the police to report the matter and police invited Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija and his killer squad but they blatantly declined the invitation. Accompanied by the Police, Anigbogu said he went into the market on 23rd December to arrest him but Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija began to fight him in the presence of the police officers who came to make the arrests.

He said it was a terrible experience for him as Ofia, his wife and hired hoodlums began to beat him; dissecting his body with matchet cuts and slamming bottles on his head until he became helpless with blood all over his body. As if that was not enough, Anigbogu said Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija and his hired criminals thereafter went to his three shops at Jesus The King Line and raided them completely.

Anigbogu who maintained that there is a video evidence of invasion of his shops by Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija and his gang members, noted that goods worth millions of naira were carted away as well as all the money in his shops was equally stolen. That while the loot were going on, Ofia ensured that nobody was allowed to make videos of what was happening because anyone who dared to record them with his phone was giving the beating of his life by his hired security operatives and deadly hoodlums.

As if the damages done to his shops were not enough, Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija and his hired security details and deadly thugs came to the hospital where he was admitted as a result of the matchet cuts on his head, to cause him more harm but unfortunately, the doctors and nurses on duty didn't allow it instead the Commissioner of Police was alerted and a quick deployment was made to provide security at the hospital after which he was transferred to another undisclosed hospital for his personal safety.

Anigbogu said Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija vowed that he would never become the chairman of Emordi Shoe Dealers Association and that he has spent huge sums of money to bribe the appropriate offices in Awka just to ensure that everything played out to his advantage and ulterior motives, adding that Ofia is bent on hijacking the leadership of Emordi Shoe Dealers Association.

He also disclosed that Ofia was sacked by the Anambra State Government because he refused to conduct election for another regime after spending over nine years as the chairman of Emordi Shoe Dealers Association.

Anigbogu maintained that Chief Nwabueze Friday Umeh has become a monster to his fellow traders in the market since he was booted out of office by the state government; terrorising them with Anti-tout, Agunechemba and all manner of thugs, should anyone dare to challenge him or question his activities in the market.

Responding to the allegations, Chief Nwabueze Friday Umeh, Ofiafulu Ego Na Okija, told this journalist that all the allegations levelled against him by Hon. Okwudili Anigbogu, were all lies from the pit of hell.

Umeh said there is a subsisting executive order abolishing all manner of elections in Anambra markets and that government instituted caretaker committees to sparehead market union leaderships.

According to him, the Emordi Shoe Dealers Association election conducted at the Onitsha-South Local Government headquarters was illegal because government has proscribed all market union elections and that the Onitsha-South Local Government chairman has long dissociated himself from the charade.

He said a caretaker committee has been inaugurated for Emordi Shoe Dealers Association and they should be allowed to function as the law stipulated.

He therefore made it abundantly clear that he didn't hire hoodlums or security operatives to molest anyone rather it was his wife who was beaten by one of the police officers that accompanied Okwudili Anigbogu to arrest him in his office on 23rd December which incidentally was his wife's birthday celebration.

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The ill-fated Okwudili Anigbogu and one of the unfortunate police officers beaten to stupor