Colonel I.S. Ekpo of the 44 Army Referral Hospital, Kaduna in Kaduna State has been accused of illegally detaining a 17-year old boy, Uneku Idoku, after accusing the victim of stealing a pair of Converse shoes belonging to the colonel’s son.
Colonel I.S. Ekpo of the 44 Army Referral Hospital, Kaduna in Kaduna State has been accused of illegally detaining a 17-year old boy, Uneku Idoku, after accusing the victim of stealing a pair of Converse shoes belonging to the colonel’s son.
Two SaharaReporters sources said the colonel detained Uneku Idoku in a wardrobe for several days, leaving the victim severely sick. One source added that the youngster’s father had retired as a staff sergeant after working at the military hospital.
According to the sources, Colonel Ekpo, a medical doctor, boasted that nobody could stop him from meting out his own justice on his 17-year old victim. “He also said he would deal decisively with anybody who reported the matter to higher authority,” one source claimed.
Our sources also disclosed that Colonel Ekpo even locked Uneku Idoku inside the hospital’s morgue for one night after he compelled the young man to wash dead bodies.
“Everybody knew that Colonel Ekpo was acting irrationally by taking matters into his own hand, but nobody was willing to correct him because he has a habit of slapping people,” one of the soldiers at the medical facility told our correspondent.
When our correspondent rang Colonel Ekpo’s mobile number (0703.440.0259), he was too concerned with how we got his number to comment on the allegation of dehumanizing a youngster. After furiously asking how we got his number and who gave us the information of his act, he said he would get back to us. He switched off his phone and never called back.
The management of the hospital has been silent on a petition it received last week about the issue. A military source said the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 1 Mechanized Division of Nigerian Army, Kaduna, invited Colonel Ekpo for questioning, adding that the military decided to be secretive about the incident in order not to let the public know.
According to two sources, the dehumanized youngster had taken ill, and was spitting blood. “And yet Colonel Ekpo has threatened to deal with any medical personnel at the hospital who attends to the boy,” one source said.
A lawyer familiar with the case told SaharaReporters that a human rights activist was gathering information about the issue in order to make a formal report to the National Human Rights Commission for formal investigation and action.