By Akpan David, Calabar
Five personnel of Nigerian Navy some of hem attached to the newly established Operation Apakwu in Cross River State have allegedly brutalised a mother and daughter and forced them to drink muddy water from a gutter.
The incident happened in Calabar on Sunday 27 December 2020 following an alleged quarrel with the mother of one of the naval personnel.
Speaking to journalists in the presence of their lawyer, Barrister Itoti, one of the victims, Miss Nsisong Akpan who recently had a surgery, was battered, leaving her with multiple injuries and swollen arm.
She narrated her family’s ordeal in the hands of the operative who had arrived their family apartment in a truck with registration number 3032.
“At about 4pm on Sunday 27 December, we heard someone shouting in the compound and issuing threats but because we had no issue with anyone, we did not bother ourselves.
“But when I came outside to sit with my mum since there was power outage and the room was hot.
“As we played game of Ludo with my mum, a young man, Mr Victor Owonam, our neighbour’s son and who is also a naval personnel came with four men we perceived were naval officers because one of them was in a navy uniform and with a dagger.
“Owonam went and called his mother to come and point at who allegedly insulted her and the woman pointed at me.
“While we were still pondering what was going on, the men pounced on me, my mum and siblings.
“No one had come to our rescue because the gate was locked. While this was going on, Owonam’s sister, Mrs Peace Femi who is also a corporal in the navy attacked my immediate younger sister outside the gate.”
Missing said they were thoroughly beaten by the five men with belts and boots. When they left us, we proceeded to the Airport Police Station to report the matter.
“We came back home at about 8pm after reporting the matter but at about 10pm, we heard a knock on our burglar proof, when I looked through the window, I saw eight men in military uniform and they ordered my mum to come and open the burglar proof.
“My mum who was only tying a wrapper was trying to put on her cloth when they broke the burglar proof, came in and started beating up everyone in the family; we were ordered out of the house and carried in their truck to an unknown destination.
“After driving us round and round, we were brought to Bogobiri part of Calabar where we were ordered out of the truck. And they poured all sorts of invectives on us and commanded us to go into the gutter, lie down and drink while they continued beating, inflicting injuries and pouring the water from the gutter on us.”
According to Nsisong, they freed them at about 3am the following day, after about five hours.
They called on Nigerians to come to their rescue and for justice to prevail.
Lawyer to the brutalised, David Torty said: “The only thing my client can remember was that in July 2020, there was a quarrel in the compound as the mother of Victor Owonam likes rendering verbal abuses on my client and her family, calling them prostitutes.
“However, two days after this quarrel, Victor’s elder brother came to the compound and the matter was resolved and since then, there has been relative peace.
“Only for Victor who is the third son and a naval personnel based in Abuja to come back in Dec. and start battering my client and family while threatening them.
“My client has not seen him for some time and there was no issue that was suppose to warrant an attack, he just felt that my client and her siblings are all girls and their father was late.
“They refused to explain the reason for their action but continued to beat the whole family which their belt and inflicting injuries on them.
Several calls to Dr Alfred Mboto, the permanent secretary and adviser to Gov Ben Ayade on security matters who coordinates activities of Operation Apakwu, were not answered.
The PRO of the state police command, Irene Ugbo feigned ignorance of the incident.
