Abia State Speaker visits shot FRSC men in hospital

July 17, 2017

By Ijendu Iheaka

The Speaker, Abia state House of Assembly, Mr Chikwendu Kalu on Monday visited the two Federal Road Safety Corps men shot on Saturday by policemen attached to him.

Kalu who arrived the Living Word Mission Hospital, Aba around 10 am said he came to see how the men were faring.

However, the speaker was stopped from entering their ward by the victims who shouted that Kalu should not be allowed into the room.

One of the men who was shot on the neck and waist was seen on the floor reeling and crying profusely while some hospital staff tried to console and control him.

"I saw him at the scene. What if we had died, he would have come to see our corpses", he said

However, Kalu who spoke to newsmen after the visit said he was satisfied that the FRSC men were recuperating and in better health condition.

He said that he had paid their hospital bills already and would still pay them more visits until they were discharged from the hospital.

Kalu said although he had no say in the fate of his police aide who shot the FRSC men, that there was no reason for the shooting to have taken place at all.

"I don't think I will ever condone that (overzealousness). I have been able to do the needful telling them that such a thing will never happen again", he said.

Dr Jude Ehiemere, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital when asked about the health status of the victims declined comments saying that he is busy and has no time for journalists.

Reports say that FRSC men from RS 9.32 at Kilometer 78 Umuikea had a clash with the wife of Kalu in the afternoon on Saturday while she was travelling to Aba because her driver did not put on his seatbelt on.

The report said that the clash resulted in two ladies in Kalu’s wife’s SUV joining her to fight FRSC men for attempting to stop their vehicle against their will to stop.

It was reported that the Speaker was informed and he sent policemen who came in and began to shoot at FRSC staff injuring two of them with one sustaining injuries on the neck and waist and the other on the hand.

The men also claimed to have seen the speaker at the site of the incident alleging that he ordered the shooting but the Speaker had refuted the allegation saying that he was never at the scene of the incident.

The Abia Police Command through its PRO, ASP Geoffrey Ogbonna had said that the two persons who were suspected to have shot the RFSC men, one police officer and a Department of State Security (DSS) staff have been arrested and detained to aid investigations.

Meanwhile, the two FRSC staff who were shot are now at the Living Word Mission Hospital Aba receiving treatment.

Reports say that the hospital authorities who had scheduled one of them shot in the lower region of his abdomen for a surgery had cancelled the surgery stressing that removing the bullet from his body could cause him permanent disorder.