… Police invites family
The Government of Anambra State has suspended with immediate effect, the waste management contractor covering the part of Onitsha where Mr. Okechukwu Akaneme was reportedly battered, Messrs Salitz International Ventures, just as the State Police Command has invited the family to aid investigations, reports ITREALMS.
An official letter to that effect available to ITREALMS, and addressed to the Managing Director of the company, dated 18th November by the Permanent Secretary, Anambra State Ministry of Environment, Mr. Tochukwu Obodogha on behalf of the Honourable Commissioner, confirmed the suspension of “all operations of Salitz International Ventures, effective immediately, pending the full investigation’s outcome.”
The letter also requested full cooperation with the ongoing investigative proceedings, just as the “Anambra State Waste Management Authority (ASWAMA) has been directed to temporarily withdraw your waste management operating license.”
The permanent secretary, pointed out that the State Government maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any form of misconduct or aggressive behaviour in the discharge of official duties by any of its agents.
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“You are hereby mandated to make yourself available to assist in the investigation as required,” the letter read with chairman of ASWAMA was put on copy.
Meanwhile the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Anambra State, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga while responding to inquiries by ITREALMS, disclosed that his office is yet to receive any such report formally.
Ikenga subsequently extended invitation to the family of Mr. Okechukwu Akaneme, who was a former Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Onitsha federated chapel, to see him as soon as possible to enable his office take relevant actions as may be necessary.
ITREALMS recalls that the story making a round on social media indicated that the former president, Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Okechukwu Akaneme had his spinal cord broken by agents of the Anambra State Waste Management Authority and is currently battling to stay alive at Memphis Hospital, Enugu, Enugu State.
Part of the story has it that “On Friday, October 11, 2024, around 7am, a team of the Anambra State Waste Management Authority (ASWAMA) led by one Joseph Okoye and accompanied by two armed Nigeria Police Force operatives came to Mr. Akaneme’s house and mercilessly brutalized him, leaving him with a broken spinal cord following argument over unpaid ASWAMA levy.
“The most inhuman part of this is that after one of the policemen wove his hands through Mr Akaneme’s armpit and locked it behind his neck leading to his bone cracking, instead of taking him to the hospital immediately, they all ran away leaving the sexagenarian lying half dead on the floor.”
ITREALMS gathered that it was the neighbors and Mr. Akaneme’s employees that took him to Holy Rosary Specialist Hospital and Maternity, Waterside, Onitsha, Anambra State, from where he was referred to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, (NAUTH) Nnewi where he was driven to in the hospital’s Ambulance with life support.
According to the report, “It was at NAUTH that an MRI examination conducted on him showed that his spinal cord has been damaged about 65%. He was later referred to the UNTH for more expert care.”
Mr. Akaneme, ITREALMS further gathered was a former president of Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, former Chairman of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Onitsha federated chapel, prominent leader in the Onitsha business community and a major employer of labour, who is currently at Memphis Hospital, Enugu, where he has been hospitalised.
Chuks Egbune/Editor
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