By Ugbor Samuel, Abakaliki

The Ebonyi State Police Command, on Monday, arrested two suspected taskforce members for allegedly beating a tricycle operator, one Mike Obasi, to coma.

The suspects, popularly known as 2Face and one other, it was gathered had decended on the victim at the Magaret Umahi International Market, for alleged wrong packing.

DFC News further learnt that the suspects demanded the sum of N1,000.00 from Obasi, who after ransacking himself, was able to find the sum of N300.00 on himself, which he presented to the suspected taskforce members, who allegedly insisted that it must N1,000.00.

The victim, further investigations revealed, had after discharging his passenger at the Magaret Umahi International Market, on Monday, at about 7pm, picked another female passenger, who was said to be headed to motherless babies home, but had while reversing at the roundabout of the market to proceed to the orphanage, was accused to have packed wrongly by the taskforce team, who waylaid him with a white Hummer bus.

The victim, who hails from Ogboji community, in the Ishielu Local Government Area of the state, told our Correspondent, in his hospital bed that he was beaten by the three suspects, who alighted from the white Hummer bus, with all manner of weapons, including sticks.

While interacting with our Correspondent, the victim, who was seen to be passing urine through a pipe consequent upon the beating, said, ” My name is Mike Obasi from Ogboji Community in Ishielu LGA of Ebonyi state. I am a father of five kids.

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“I entered the International Market with my Keke to drop a passenger, all of sudden a white Hummer bus double-crossed me and three persons jumped down from the bus and demanded for #1000 for parking wrongly. As I was still begging them with #300, they pushed me out of my Keke and started beating me. I don’t know what they hit on my back and I fell down.

“Later I saw myself in the hospital with the same people who attacked me in the market, claiming to have been the ones that rescued me. One of them offered me #5,000 to leave the hospital but even at that time, I was not able to move my body.”

The Ebonyi State Police Command, on Tuesday, confirmed the incident, and added that the perpetrators of the distardedly act took laws into their hands.

The spokesperson for the Command, DSP Loveth Odah, told our Correspondent that two persons had been arrested in connection with the matter.

She also added that the victim had been admitted to an undisclosed hospital in the State Capital, where he was receiving treatment, stressing that the suspects’ actions were barbaric and dehumanising.

Mrs Odah, who, however, said that the activities of criminals at the International Market were becoming unbecoming, noted that the State Government, under the leadership of Governor David Umahi, would soon handover the security arrangement of the market, to the Ebonyi State Police Command.

Odah said, “Yes, we have received reports of the attack on a Keke driver by taskforce team members, at the Magaret Umahi International Market on Monday. Those people took laws into their hands and its barbaric to do so.

“We learnt that the victim had been admitted at a hospital in Abakaliki and was recovering. We appeal to the general public to maintain their calm and wait as police properly investigate the matter.

“Although, we blame the Keke driver (victim) for allegedly packing wrongly, but that wasn’t enough reason why the taskforce members should have decended on him and beaten him this bad.

“However, the State Government is all out to ensure the security of Ebonyians in that market, in conjunction with the Ebonyi State Police Command and the State Government will soon handover the  security arrangement of the market to the Command.”