Police Sergeant Attacks Guardian Reporter At Bayelsa Gateway Checkpoint

A police sergeant attached to the Bayelsa State security outfit, nicknamed ‘DOO AKPO’, reportedly threw caution to the dogs when he brutalized a correspondent of the Guardian newspaper in the state, Mr Julius Osahon.

BigPen Online learnt that the officer simply identified as Idus Emmanuel, with DOO AKPO vehicle number 082, on Tuesday beat up the journalist for daring to speak at a checkpoint where a vehicle he boarded was subjected to heavy scrutiny.

Sergeant Idus was said to have slapped the journalist several time and also corked his service riffle threatening to shot him.

The journalist, Osahon who has been on hospital bed since the incident which happened at the Igbogene end of the Bayelsa gateway, told newsmen in Yenageo on Friday that he has formally petitioned the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Boma Spero-Jack and the Bayelsa Commissioner of Police, for the Sergeant to be brought to book for the assault on him.

According to him, the powers drunk police officer molested and treated him like a common ‘criminal’ for no offence other than asking a question.

“I was coming from Benin city where I have gone to see my family when the incident took place around 1:30pm and it was in the full glare of passengers we boarded a bus belonging to Sunny Eru Motors from Warri, Delta State.

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“The Sergeant corked his service rifle and threatened  to shoot me. He pointed the gun at me and ordered me  to lie down. I tried to find out why he asked me to lie down and he angrily barked at me that I was refusing a lawful order.

“It was at that point that he started giving me slaps. I am still nursing the injury he inflicted on my right ear at a private hospital.

“Up until now, I still cannot fathom what warranted Sgt Emmanuel to batter me or threaten to kill me because I never exchanged words with him or any member of his the team.

Giving a background of what happened at the checkpoint before the attack, Osahon said, “from observation, some passengers on the bus we were in had a little friction with an NDLEA official and a policewoman, Eunice Omuero, over their molestation of a student of the Niger Delta University.

“The NDU student, who we were in the same vehicle, I cannot say what his problem with the enforcement officials was, but people said it was probably because he (student) was wearing an ear-ring.

“I only alighted from the bus to ask the officers what was happening and that they should allow the student to go since they did not find anything incriminating on him after a thorough search on his body, bag, including his inner pockets.

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“The molestation of the boy continued so much so that when one of the police officers ordered every passenger to go back into the bus, they refused, until the boy was allowed to continue his journey with us to Yenagoa.

“When the bus was about to move, Sgt Emmanuel crossed over from the opposite checkpoint because he thought I was about to make a call and ordered me to lie down.

“He ‘corked’ his rifle and pointed it at me, saying he would kill me and nothing would happen. I tried to explain to him that I was not making any call, but he refused to listen and thereafter, he slapped me several times. I was humiliated like a common criminal.

“The passengers in the bus were surprised at the inhuman treatment meted to me by Sgt Emmanuel, a situation that almost triggered a mini protest there. As if that was not enough, he (Sgt Emmanuel) and other security operatives ordered all of us to get back into our bus at a gun point”, Osahon stated in the petition.

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