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Group launches appeal fund for his treatment
Tears are freely flowing for Mr. Theophilus Okechukwu Akaneme, a journalist and former President of the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, who is now paralyzed as a result of his brutalization by a set of police officers and operatives of Anambra State Waste Management Authority (ASWAMA), who attacked him in at home in Onitsha while on a revenue drive.
According to sources, the ASWAMA team had, on the 11th of last month, visited the home of Akaneme, a former Chairman of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Onitsha Federated Chapel, prominent leader in the Onitsha business community and a major employer of labour in the commercial city, to collect sanitation levy.
“It was around 7am when an ASWAMA team led by one Joseph Okoye and accompanied by two armed Nigeria Police Force operatives came to his house and mercilessly brutalized him, leaving him with a broken spinal cord following an argument over unpaid ASWAMA levy,” one of the sources told globalupfrontnews.com
“The most inhuman part of this is that after one of the policemen wove his hands through Mr. Akaneme’s armpit and locked it behind his neck leading to his bone cracking but instead of taking him to the hospital immediately, they all ran away leaving the sexagenarian lying half dead on the floor.
“It was the neighbours and Mr. Akaneme’s employees that took him to Holy Rosary Specialist Hospital and Maternity, waterside, Onitsha from where he was referred to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, (NAUTH) Nnewi where he was driven to in the hospital’s Ambulance with life support.
“It was at NAUTH that an MRI examination conducted on him showed that his spinal cord has been damaged about 65%. He was later referred to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) for more expert care. He is currently at Memphis Hospital, Enugu, battling to remain alive with hopes of him ever walking again fast diminishing.”
According to Dr. Uche Nworah, convener of Anambra First, the non-partisan platform organising the fundraiser, “After pooling the funds, as we have done in past financial drives, we will present them to the beneficiary.”
“The real tragedy of this whole case is that not a single soul has been held accountable for this heinous act. The head of ASWAMA who sent his boys on that murderous assignment, Mike Ifeanyi Ozoemena claims Mr. Akaneme is just pretending to be injured,” the source who spoke to globalupfrontnews further lamented.
“The Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Felix Odimegwu, whose Ministry oversees ASWAMA and as such, shares vicarious liability over this dastardly act, hasn’t deemed it necessary to wade in, if only to help save Mr. Akaneme’s life before any other thing.
“The State Governor who swore an oath to protect every life in Anambra and on whose table the buck stops, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo hasn’t done anything. Even the policemen who maimed this senior citizen walk the earth as free men.
“But even more worrisome is the conspiracy of silence by the Anambra business and media community over this.
It took over a month for the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, an organization Mr. Akaneme led in a distinguished manner between 2007 and 2012, to speak on this because in their delusion, they think condemning evil amounts to attacking the government.”
As a result of the inhuman treatment meted to Mr. Okechukwu, he had his spinal cord broken and is currently battling to stay alive at a private hospital in Enugu.
Akaneme, a 1986 graduate of Mass Communication, has lived in Onitsha where, along with his classmate and friend, Okechukwu Anene, he has been running a publishing company since after their National Youth Service in 1987.
They publish a bi-weekly newspaper called The Bridge a name taken after the iconic bridge across the River Niger at Onitsha.
