NSCDC Officers Break Imo Journalist’s Head, Call Him ‘IPOB’

A journalist with The Punch newspaper in Imo State, Chidiebube Okeoma, has narrated how officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp (NSCDC) allegedly assaulted him while carrying out his legitimate duties in the state

Okeoma told our correspondent that the NSCDC officers attached to the Federal Girls Government College, Owerri, pounced on him when he visited the school to make enquiry about a viral online video purporting to show a senior student of the school beating and bullying a junior student.

According to the journalist, on arriving the school premises, the NSCDC officers accused him of being a spy of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the alleged armed wing of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

He alleged that one of the officers used the bottom of his riffle to hit him on the head and smashed his cell phone on the floor.

His words: “We were at the FGGC, Owerri, to meet the school’s principal over a viral video where a senior student of the school was seen bullying a junior student. At the gate, the security men (NSCDC officers) stopped us and on inquiry, they said that the principal was not around.

“I asked them to take us to the vice-principal and they said he was not on seat. I asked them to take me to the next-in-command; they asked me to return next week. I told them that it was urgent, and this was when they started bullying me.

“Thereafter, two armed NSCDC officers emerged and started beating me. One of them hit me with the butt (sic) of his rifle and my head was broken. While in a pool of blood, they dragged me barefoot to their command headquarters like a common criminal. While I was being dragged to their headquarters, one of the officers said I came to kidnap the students. He labelled me a member of the Eastern Security Network.

“At their command headquarters, I was interrogated by a senior officer and was later allowed to go. I immediately went to a hospital and was treated. I have gone to the Shell Camp Police Division to make a statement.”