Police Brutality: Victims Want Eleme DPO Investigated

R-L: United Stated Consul General, Francis John Bray, Chairman,/Chief Executive, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah, with the Director General of NDLEA, Mrs Roli Bode-George, during the donation of 11 pick up trucks and transport vans to the NDLEA by the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: U.S. Consulate General, Lagos

The Secretary of the
National Association of Plant Operators (NAPO), Rivers State Council, Comrade Harold Bestowe and a victim  of police brutality in the ate has called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomo Arase and the State Commissioner of Police, CP Musa Kimo to investigate the Divisional Police Officer, Eleme, DPO Amos over an alleged attempted murder, brutality and abduction meted against him and two other members of the union by the police officer, last Thursday at Eleme Local Government Area.
Com. Harold made this call in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, yesterday adding that if not God’s intervention, he would have lost his life due to the beating and torture he received from  of the DPO and his personnel at the Eleme Police Division.
According to him, the call for the investigation become imperative following the campaign by the police authorities on the police and civil relationship and accused DPO Amos as one of the bad eggs in the police whose antics was to discredit the police institution.
The labour leader who spoke from of his sick bed at a hospital in Port Harcourt accused the police officer for receiving money from Deawoo Company to kill him and two others of his union members over their insistence on the payment of redundancy pay to their members by Deawoo.
He alleged that the DPO used his service rifle to hit him on his head severally and electrocuted him because of his refusal to write his statement at the station adding that the offence he committed  was that he demanded to see his lawyer “On the 12/5/2016 at the gate of Indorama/Deawoo Company at about 11am, members of NAPO embarked on a peaceful protest to demand for the payment of redundancy package for our members  from Deawoo Company. Before then, we have written to police, Army and DSS informing them of our intention to picket Deawoo/Indorama on that fateful day”.
“But to our surprise, the DPO Eleme came with patrol vehicles arrested me and two others and blindfolded me and accused me of being a leader of criminal gang even when I was with my TUC Labour uniform, took me to the station and ordered that we should be beaten”, he stated.
Com. Harold further alleged that while at the DPO’s office, he saw a  Deawoo management staff who identified him as the NAPO leader adding that that prompted the DPO to start to hit with his gun which led him to lose consciousness and he fell down.
He disclosed that the DPO abandoned him until 7pm when one Japhet Ogburi from TUC came and raised alarm before he was taken to a clinic at Oyale and added that he was on unconscious for 12 hours under handcuff before he was revived by the clinic doctor.
Reacting to the allegations, the DPO Eleme, Mr Amos denied receiving any money to kill Mr Harold Bestowe and two others, rather,  he received a distress call on that date that some criminals were disrupting activities at Indorama  Deawoo Company and that they swung in to action.
and arrested them but later released them when it was obvious that it was labour matter.
The management of Deawoo Company has refused to respond to text message sent to them.