*Petitions Zone 5, Edo Police Command for justice

By Emmanuel Okogba

November 15, 2017 is a day Mrs. Maina Hassan will not  forget in a hurry as her husband, Mallam Hassan Abu, was allegedly stabbed with  a cutlass file on the head by three men in Orogun area of Ugheli North Local Government Area of Delta State.

Mallam Hassan, a security guard  and  a  native of Reazave, Maiduguri, Borno State, was said to have attempted to resist the trio who carried out the  attack while allegedly  trying to abscond with palm fruit harvested from his principal’s compound.

The  incident took place around 2 pm  when the  suspects allegedly came to the compound with a palm fruit harvester, and, after harvesting the palm fruit without taking permission from the owner, one Dr. Ovie Ughwanogho, or the security guard, an altercation ensued.

During the heated  exchange, one of the suspects allegedly took  a cutlass file from a bag he was carrying  and stabbed the victim in the head.

Hassan, it was learnt, bled profusely from the head and was said to be dying before he was rushed to Orogun General Hospital  for treatment and, from there, to Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara. The suspects were  allegedly arrested by police officers  from  Orogun Police Station, but allegedly released on bail while the victim has since been in hospital without appreciable  improvement even after a surgery was performed to remove the cutlass file stuck in his head.

Narrating her ordeal to our correspondent  in  tears, Maina, the victim’s wife, said:  “They came and harvested the palm fruits from the compound without  permission from my husband or his employer.

“It was our daughter that came to inform us that some persons  had harvested palm fruit from the entrance of our compound, so my husband and I went outside to meet them and my husband challenged them and they replied that a Hausa  man could not come and claim right in their land.

“So my husband began to quarrel with the three of them but I told him not to quarrel because of palm fruit and, as I was about going inside the compound, one of them shouted at me, telling me to be silent.

“Before I could respond, one of them gave me a dirty slap and I almost fell to the ground with my seven months old pregnancy.

“ A brawl now ensued between them and my husband. I tried to separate them but they pushed me to the ground and, before I knew it, they overpowered my husband and one of them stabbed him with the butt of the cutlass file in the head.

“ My husband fell to the ground and blood was gushing out from his head. I ran into the house and brought rapper to stop the bleeding before he was rushed to  Orogun General Hospital. One of the assailants  told his colleagues in Urhobo unknown to them I understand Urhobo to go and report at the police station that I had stabbed my husband.

“ From Orogun General Hospital, my husband was taken to DELSUTH for treatment. He was  operated on and, since then, seven months ago, my husband has been critically ill.

“ Dr. Ovie, my husband’s employer, has spent over five million naira  and he is still spending. I have four children to take care of  and my husband’s Oga is the one taking care of the medical bills and our feeding while the three men who carried out the attack on my husband are  walking free. In fact, each time they see me , they laugh at me since one of them lives  close to us.

“ Because of the way the whole thing is going, I suspect a conspiracy to cover up the attempted murder of my husband. So I sent a petition to Zone 5 Benin-City, Edo State. Following the petition, two of the suspects  were invited to Zone 5 but somehow they were released.

“I am calling on Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mustafa Muhammad, the Department of State Service, human rights organizations and all security agencies to use their good offices to bring the attackers of my husband to justice.”

Contacted, Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Andrew Aniamaka, described the incident as the height of man’s inhumanity to man.

He, however, said that since the issue was reported to Zone 5, Benin-City, Edo State, the state command could not seek the transfer of the case to it because Zone 5 is higher.

He said : “ Zone 5 is higher than Delta State Command, so we cannot request for the transfer of the case to us since it is already being  handled there. If the story was reported to the command earlier, we would have stepped in, but now it is beyond the powers of the state command.”