Mrs. Ngozi Nzekwe, wife of an Enugu businessman, Chief Tochukwu Nzekwe, has accused the Nigeria Police of keeping her spouse in prison custody over trumped-up charges.
The distraught wife alleged that the police assaulted, unlawfully detained and extorted Chief Nzekwe, who is the Managing Director/CEO of Toshel Construction Ltd.
The devastated woman further alleged that Chief Nzekwe is being humiliated for a fundamental human rights case filed by one of his company’s drivers, Okechukwu Offor, against another construction company, Eketeson Resources Limited, its Chief Executive Officer, Chief Donald Ekete and one Inspector Achile Attah of the Enugu State Police Command.
According to Mrs. Nzekwe, the brutal assault on the truck driver, whose truck had allegedly defaced a portion of a road under construction by Eketeson, led to the N1bn fundamental rights Suit No. E/527/2024 filed in Enugu High Court on the driver’s behalf by the law firm of OAU Onyema.
Mrs. Nzekwe narrated that her husband was allegedly called by the Commissioner of Police a day prior to the incident on September 26, 2024 and assured that the issues surrounding the defacing of a portion of the road under construction by his company’s truck had been resolved.
She, however, expressed shock that what happened next revealed a deeply troubling plot against her husband.
“My husband was lured by a team who claimed to have come from the Commissioner of Police’s office to an Enugu hotel under the pretence of holding a business meeting.
“He was ambushed and his phone forcibly seized to prevent him from contacting his lawyers or relatives. He was violently assaulted, abducted, handcuffed, and blindfolded.
“As my husband’s illegal detention was escalated, they swiftly arraigned him before a Magistrate around 5.20pm, the same day of his arrest, with three fully armed police officers present in the courtroom, creating an intimidating atmosphere.
“They took disturbing photographs and videos of him during the arraignment under the watch of the presiding Magistrate.
“Shockingly, they mischievously preferred a charge that is unconnected with the malicious damage claim they had hitherto listed on his Arraignment Notice. They deliberately charged him for promoting native war, an offence totally unconnected with the damage said to have been occasioned by his truck driver; which event did not concern my husband,” Mrs. Nzekwe lamented.
