Troops stormed the railway
police station, Umuahia in the Abia State capital monday and whisked away the
divisional police officer (DPO) and another policemen after raining blows on
them following the arrest of an army captain for parking his bus at an
unauthorised place close to the station.
Trouble started at about 11 am
when the DPO, who just assumed duty last Thursday was driving to his office and
saw a bus parked close to the station and alighted from his jeep.
As he was fuming, the owner of
the bus emerged and opted to remove his vehicle but the DPO rejected all
entreaties and ordered his men to arrest him.
It was then that the bus owner identified
himself as an army captain (in mufti), a revelation that obviously compounded
his case, as the DPO got angrier.
“If you are any army captain how
many wars have you fought? I have fought in three Boko Haram states and you are
resisting my arrest order,” the DPO barked out.
The altercation drew a large
crowd of onlookers as two police officers struggled to drag the resisting army
officer to the police station to no avail. As the melee continued, the
soldier’s clothes were torn in the process.
However, the crowd, which was
obviously enjoying the altercation, scampered to safety when one of the
policemen bearing a firearm fired a shot into the air to subdue the army
officer.
At this point, shop owners
hurriedly started closing up to avoid stray bullets. Indeed the railway
policemen went berserk and pounced on shop owners, impounded the army officer’s
car, and gave him the beating of his life.
When the army officer eventually
agreed to enter the police station, a lady who knew him and had pleaded with the
policemen to let him go was seen making a phone call which turned out to be an
S.O.S to his colleagues in the army.
One by one army patrol vans
arrived at the scene of the melee from different directions. The first patrol
van arrived with four soldiers, who made straight for the police station and
were seen remonstrating with the DPO.
But by the time the third and
fourth patrol vans arrived, more troops poured into the scene increasing their
number to 20. The atmosphere was intensely charged, following which the ordeal
of the policemen started.
The army officers descended on
the DPO and his junior colleagues beating them black and blue before bundling
them into vans and drove away to an unknown destination.
The only policeman left in the
station had resisted every effort by some of the soldiers to disarm him. Even
when he was beaten up, he still held on to his firearm.
Less than five minutes after the
army made away with the arrested policemen, three police patrol vans from the
Central Police Station (CPS), Umuahia, arrived at the scene but it was too late
to save their colleagues.
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