Ebonyi task force members arrested for battering rider to coma

On Monday, operatives of the Ebonyi State Police Command arrested two suspected task force members for allegedly beating a tricycle operator, Mike Obasi, to a pulp.

One of the suspects, popularly known as 2Face, and another reportedly descended on the victim at the Margaret Umahi International Market for alleged wrong parking.

TopNaija uncovered that the suspects demanded N1,000 from Obasi, who was only able to offer the sum of N300 to the suspects.

The victim had after discharging his passenger at the market around 7pm, picked up another female passenger, who was said to be heading for the Motherless Babies’ Home, but was accused of parking wrongly by the task force team, who blocked him with a white Hummer bus.

The victim, who hails from Ogboji in the Ishielu Local Government Area of the state, told our correspondent on his hospital bed that he was beaten by three men, who alighted from the bus.

The victim, who was urinating through a pipe as a result of the attack, said, “My name is Mike Obasi from Ogboji community in the Ishielu LGA of Ebonyi State. I am a father of five kids.

“I entered the international market with my tricycle to drop a passenger; all of sudden, a white Hummer bus double-crossed me and three persons jumped down from the bus and demanded N1,000 for parking wrongly. As I was begging them with N300, they pushed me out of my Keke and started beating me. I don’t know what they hit on my back and I fell down.

“Later, I saw myself in the hospital with the same people, who attacked me in the market, claiming to be the ones who rescued me. One of them offered me N5,000 to leave the hospital, but I was not able to move my body.”

The state police command confirmed the incident and added that the perpetrators took the law into their own hands. The spokesperson for the command, DSP Loveth Odah, told our correspondent that two persons had been arrested in connection with the incident.

She added that the victim had been admitted to an undisclosed hospital in the state capital, where he was receiving treatment, stressing that the suspects’ actions were barbaric and dehumanising.