Some men
suspected to be Indian hemp dealers at Ogbese in the Akure North Local
Government Area of Ondo State have allegedly beaten up a woman, identified as
Mrs Martina Christopher, her father and brother to a pulp over the disappearance
of bags of cannabis kept on the victims’ farmland.
It was
gathered that the Indian hemp dealers, numbering about 40, had last Thursday
invaded Martina’s farmland, located at Bolorunduro village in the council area,
to search for some bags of the cannabis earlier kept on the farm. They were
said to have met Martina’s brother, Isaac Akpan, working in the farm.
As the
dealers could not find the bags of cannabis, it was gathered that they accused
Isaac of stealing the product and thereafter tortured him before taking him
away.
Having
received the news of the incident, Martina and her father, Mr Joseph Akpan,
were said to have traced the hoodlums to Ilu-Abo community in order to rescue
Isaac, but they too were beaten up by the alleged hemp dealers.
Narrating
her ordeal, Martina said, “I went to the farm very late on the fateful day to
join my husband and brother on the farm, because we had left the farm
unattended to for some days.
“I met these
people, about 40 of them on 15 motorcycles, then I saw my brother, who had been
beaten and injured, sandwiched between some of the hoodlums on one of the
motorcycles; I had to turn back and later, I was told that he had been taken to
Ilu-Abo.
“I then went
to Ilu-Abo in company with our father, only to see my brother mercilessly
beaten and injured; and immediately the hoodlums saw us, they descended on us
and beat me and my father to a pulp, demanding to know the whereabouts of the
bags of Indian hemp kept on our farm.
“My father
fainted and as I tried to touch him, they gave me a machete cut, while some of
them beat me with sticks and I also fainted, because I had lost a lot of
blood.”
She
explained that the hoodlums threatened to wipe out the entire family if they
failed to produce the missing bags of Indian hemp, adding that the hoodlums
bragged that no security operatives could arrest them.
The husband
of the victim, Mr Augustine Christopher, said he had to report the case at the
Area Command in Oba Ile, Akure, following the threat to wipe out his family.
He appealed
to the state government and the security agents to save his family from the
hoodlums.
When
contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr Femi Joseph,
confirmed the incident and said the command had made some arrests over the
matter.
“The
Commissioner of Police, Mr Gbenga Adeyanju, has ordered that the matter should
be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Akure, while
investigation is ongoing,” Joseph added.
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