Aide-de-camp (ADC) to Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, Mr. Mohammed Tinja has been dragged before an Abakaliki High Court for allegedly assaulting one Sunday Agwu with an AK 47 rifle and dispensing tear gas in his eyes and mouth.
In suit No. HAB/39 MC/2012, Agwu, who doubles as Public Relations Officer of a political group, Ebonyi Youth Assembly, claimed that Tinja led the assault on him on May 29, 2012, during Democracy Day celebrations at the Abakaliki township stadium.
Agwu alleged that Tinja punched his face severally, ordered policemen present to participate in battering him, and then bundling him into a Toyota Hilux truck.
The ADC, Agwu averred, “Carried me to the police Headquarters, Abakaliki where he hit him severally with the butt of an AK 47 rifle and sprayed tear gas into his eyes and mouth”.
On Tinja’s orders, further held Agwu, he was detained in the police station for over 8 hours under very traumatic circumstances.
His counsel, Mr. Nnachi Igbo, told the Justice Vincent Nwancho-led court that section 34 (1) (a) of the Nigeria Constitution clearly prohibits torture, inhuman or degrading treatment on any individual.
The counsel urged the court to, among other reliefs, order the ADC to publish an apology addressed to his client in two national dailies.