Abadoni explained that on the said day, an accident occurred when a Julius Berger Nigeria Plc Toyota Hilux and a commercial motorcyclist heading towards the Niger Bridge collided with each other.
A resident of Delta State, Dickson Abadoni, has lamented how officers of the Nigeria Police Force, Delta State Command, physically assaulted him and broke his hand while trying to settle an accident case.
Abadoni, who said he works as a security officer for Julius Berger Nigeria Plc (JBN), covering the access road linking the 2nd Niger Bridge to the existing road, told SaharaReporters that he was brutalised while trying to settle an accident matter between his organisation’s driver and a commercial motorcyclist near the C Division.
SaharaReporters learnt that the policemen were attached to the C Division, along Asaba/Onitsha Expressway in Oshimili South Local Government Area of the State and the incident happened on Monday, April 24, 2023.
Abadoni explained that on the said day, an accident occurred when a Julius Berger Nigeria Plc Toyota Hilux and a commercial motorcyclist heading towards the Niger Bridge collided with each other.
“On getting to the scene of the accident as the Security Officer under Julius Berger Nig. PLC covering the access road linking the 2nd Niger Bridge to the existing road, the DTO attached to the C Division was in a heated argument with the JBN Driver over refusal to remove the accident vehicle from the road which the driver, one Mr. Ndubuisi said he only wanted them to snap the scene for evidential purpose before removing the vehicle but the DTO and his men refused to do the needful but insisted on the immediate removal of the vehicle.
“I quickly snapped the vehicle and asked the driver to leave the road to allow free flow of the traffic while waiting for JBN's internal traffic unit to come and report the issue officially to the police at C Division after the motorcyclist who sustained some degrees of injury has been rushed to a nearby hospital on the bike due to the heavy vehicular traffic,” he said.
Explaining further, Abadoni said that “At this juncture, the policemen said Mr. Ndubuisi should drive the Hilux into their premises before I started explaining to them after introducing myself, that they should kindly bear with us for our traffic team to arrive before taking the vehicle into their premises.
“One man, I think should be a passerby, said I am stupid and I responded by telling him that "with all due respect, I do not know him but I do not deserve such an insult because I am only trying to carry out my official duty, and moreover the vehicle in question is already packed beside the police fence and the driver has no intention of absconding since we have a lot of equipment parked in front of their station.
“Before I knew what was happening, they all pounced on me, saying that I was disobeying their Divisional Officer, DPO's order and over seven of them including the DTO started hitting me with their wooden baton and other objects which resulted to the fracture of the mid-shaft of the proximal phalanx of the 5th digit finger of my right hand.”
He further lamented that “They also used it on my head as they were pushing me into their premises which was the last hit I got before I lost consciousness only to see them spraying sachets of water on me while I was lying on the floor of their counter.
“Since then, I have been having a series of health issues ranging from severe headache, malaria, internal pains and others.
“After several medications from both the Federal Medical Center in Asaba and other private medical facilities, my health status has improved but I have not been able to fold the two right fingers which were seriously affected.”
When contacted for comments, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, simply asked SaharaReporters to send his phone number to the victim to contact him over the matter.