Oversabi Journalist, Charles Otu Abducted and Tortured By Ebonyi State Governor's Thugs (Photos)

 

The publisher of Conscience, a local newspaper, Charles Otu who is an Ebonyi based journalist, was reportedly left unconscious yesterday the 2nd of June 2017, after being kidnapped and beaten to unconsciousness by gunmen alleged to be working for the Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi.






It was gathered that Charles Otu was reportedly assaulted for using his local newspaper, Conscience to ‘expose the failures of Ebonyi state government in many sectors’. He also uses his Facebook posts to ‘update activities of the government and to critically analyse and x-ray its programs and projects’.

Here’s what a source said about the incident;

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“On Friday the 2nd of June, Otu was manhandled and bundled into a branded bus while he stood with newspaper vendors at the popular Vanco junction, Abakaliki. The bus was branded with the name ‘Akubaroha Youth Assembly’, a youth organization initiated by the governor allegedly serving as his strong arm. Thugs carrying guns jumped out of the said vehicle and kidnapped Otu, but not before beating him up in the presence of people despite his struggle to escape.
“Charles Otu was then taken to the Ebonyi State Government House, Abakaliki where he was forced out of the vehicle and made to lie on the ground. The thugs brought out machetes, rods and sticks and proceeded to beat him up – over twenty of them jostling and shoving to get their turn at him. The thugs accused Otu of making a post on Facebook two days earlier x-raying the activities of the state government and matching the failure of the government to the inaugural speech made by Governor, Engr. David Umahi the day he was sworn in.
“The said post had gone very viral and had given the state governor some serious headache as never in the past had anyone ever given such an analysis against the government.”

According to OlisaTv,  present with the thugs were some Senior Special Advisers to the Governor. While the journalist was pleading for his life, they informed him that the instruction was to kill him.

The source continued:

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“Someone had reached out to a highly placed national official who called the police authorities. It was learnt that a signal was sent to the Commissioner of Police in Ebonyi state.
“At the time, calls were already coming from all parts of the country including from the security. It was gathered that at the point of his abduction, his phone had fallen off and someone who was with him took the phone and made the initial calls. At the time he was being manhandled and assaulted at the Ebonyi State Government House, the news was everywhere on social media.
“Knowing that they’d been discovered, the thugs got calls from those that sent them not to kill Mr. Charles Otu but to get him to write an undertaking that he was going to move away from Ebonyi State and that he would never report nor write anything against the state government. One of the thugs suggested that since the abduction had leaked that it was best to take him to the police and he would sign the undertaking while at the police station.
“They bundled him into their vehicle and one of the thugs allegedly ordered the journalist not to raise his head and not to mention any of their names. At the Kpirikpiri Police Station, the alleged leader of the thugs informed the police that he saw some people beating the young man up and rescued him. Then the police asked Mr Otu to write his statement, but he was too weak to do so.”

It was gathered that friends who were at the police station snatched him from the police, and put him in a car to be taken to the hospital but the thugs blocked the vehicle, while the police watched without doing anything. It took a great effort before the vehicle carrying the unconscious journalist was able to escape and he was rushed to the emergency unit of the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki.

Efforts to reach the Ebonyi state police command have proved abortive.

Here’s one of Charles’ controversial Facebook post;

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EBONYI’S UMAHI: TWO YEARS AFTER … MY HONEST ASSESSMENT!
I was at the Abakaliki Township stadium yesterday to listen first hand, to the direction of the govt of Engr. David Nweze Umahi, two years after he made his inaugural pledge to the people of Ebonyi State.
In page 16, Paragraph 2 of the said inaugural address, Your Excellency promised that “We shall go to work every single day for the next 4 years with one single and uncompromising determination: To serve you, to keep our pledges to you, to fulfill the contents of our manifesto, to build bridges of coorperation and to keep the peace within our bothers….
Majority of these promises have not been kept!
For instance, in page 19, para 3, you said you were determined to form a government brimming with creative ideas and innovative energy. A government that is LEAN, mobile and effective. A govt that will listen and absorb the wisdom and counsel that will come from all citizens, young and old. We shall strive with our mightiest effort to give meaning to the concept of a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We shall do so precisely because we recognize that we are nothing without the people…
All Ebonyians who have watched with utter discombobulation, the regular recruitment of thugs, touts and miscreants into your govt numbering over 500 at the moment and yet counting, knows that you have since deviated from your promise to run a ‘lean’ administration. You appear more keen on strengthening a ‘thuggery system’ such that they now have more values than a supposed Perm. Sec. than delivering quality governance all because from day one, you are more interested in doing a second term than rendering selfless service.
Specifically in page 20, para 4, you said; “This govt shall REST squarely on the on the SHOULDERS OF THE PEOPLE. THE CITIZENS’ PRIORITIES SHALL BE OUR GUIDING COMPASS…
The fact in contrast is that from the onset, you became the only singer and dancer for your govt, thus, leaving out the views of the masses which you had promised not to neglect. Else, who must have informed Your Excellency that a water fountain at strategic junctions in Abakaliki are most preferable to water running in people’s homes? Was it also the people’s view that you build flyovers all over a small Abakaliki capital city when they are no reasonable economic developments in the State at the moment?
You also promised that you will never award contracts to your family members and cronies like was the practice in the past. But today, only your family members and perhaps, a few cronies are beneficiaries of major contracts in the State. The last time Ebonyians checked, your direct brother is handling the renovation of the stadium (the very platform upon which you made that promise in 2015). Or was it not recently that we saw your brother, Austin Umahi, who had reportedly ‘imposed’ on the PDP as South-East Vice Chairman taking a supposed Deputy Gov’s seat during your visit to Abia Governor? Ebonyians can bet that it has so far been a govt of the Umahi, by the Umahis and for the Umahis…
Most remarkably is Your Excellency’s pledge in page 41, para 2 of the same address wherein you averred: “Consequently, we shall reform our state’s funds allocation committee to include leadership of state organized labour, some stakeholders and government functionaries and the sharing formula shall be made public monthly…” We all attest to the fact that virtually everything about our finances have been shrouded in secrecy. The govt is absolutely unaccountable!
You had promised Civil Servants in Ebonyi an enhances welfare package. “There should not be a wide discrepancy between the welfare of our politicians and that of our civil servants. I am aware of the huge support we enjoyed from our civil servants during our elections and their great expectations from us. Let me assure them that we shall not disappoint them. One of the key things our administration shall do is to always sit down and discuss with all concerned stakeholders…
Alas, the welfare of the average Ebonyi worker has been placed below that of a TA and STA most of who have no meaningful qualifications… Their salaries have become peanuts that cannot take them home!
While lights shine in the State capital and some sycophants (particularly non-residents and visitors) appreciate them, the common man who is further impoverished by your regime’s reign of aesthetics and cosmeticism cannot wait for your cup to pass them by. Ebonyi is not a brothel or a Disco hall. It is the SALT OF THE NATION and you know what your Bible said about SALT!
I keenly listened to your speech at stadium yesterday to know if there was any new policy direction by your administration but was disappointed when you listed the establishment of pencil industry among others as part of your plans in the months ahead. And also a promise to build the best Shopping mall in Africa. And again, i ask when will we have industries that could employ poor Ebonyians? Why cant the resources be channeled towards completing that International Market and making it functional? Remember that you were part of the Elechi administration and many still hold you vicariously liable for projects done during that era…
However, i must commend what i feel is your strongest impact in governance which is the good state of some rehabilitated roads in the state capital and a few others.
You will quite agree with the common man if you are sincere to yourself that a 1 million TAs and STAs (or is even STDs) will not save you from the predictable doom of 2019 because governance, as observed by Jeremy Bentham is about the welfare of the people and achieving the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people.
Please reminded of the wise words of Seneca that “Unjust rule never endures perpetually and begin to thinker on your handover note come 2019!
Happy 2017 Democracy Day to Ebonyians. Power belongs to the masses and Ebonyi belongs to all of us!!!