Waste Management Officials Brutalise NUJ Leader, Break His Spinal Cord As Victim Battles For Life 

The former Chairman of Onitsha Federated Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Anambra State, Mr. Okechukwu Akaneme who was brutalised and got about 65% of his spinal cord broken is currently fighting for his life at the hospital.

There had been reports that on October 11, 2024, the officials of the Anambra State Waste Management Authority (ASWAMA) led by one Joseph Okoye, brutalised Akaneme.

It was gathered that the ASWAMA officials brutalised and left Akaneme, who is also the former Chairman of Onitsha Chambers of Commerce, at the mercy of death over an argument on waste management levy.

The ASWAMA officials, accompanied by some policemen, had reportedly claimed that Akaneme did not pay his waste utility bill and wanted to arrest him.

However, when he could not follow them, they tried to arrest him forcefully, and in the process, they locked his hands behind his neck.

Akaneme’s bone had cracked and the officials who noticed what happened immediately left him and ran away.

A source familiar with the case said that it was  at the hospital that medical workers confirmed that Akaneme’s spinal cord had been 65% damaged, and that it will cost more than N20 million to treat him.

Another source who is also familiar with Akaneme’s current condition, Charles Ogbu, said that at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Memfys Hospital in Enugu, “Doctors have confirmed that the neck injury he sustained when one of the policemen that accompanied the thugs wove his hands around Akaneme’s neck and squeezed it, has compromised his Autonomic Nervous System which is responsible for most of the vital body activities like Blood Pressure, Heart and Breathing rate, Body temperature, Digestion, Metabolism etc.

“The hospital bill is currently above N20,000,000, far above what Professor Florence Akaneme, a lecturer at Nsukka and wife of Mr. Akaneme could afford alone.”

Ogbu, who noted that the Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led state government has not taken enough action on the matter said, “All the government has done was buy time with promises upon promises and visits by commissioner for Environment, Felix Odimegwu whose ministry engaged those thugs that maimed Mr. Akaneme, and the ASWAMA boss, Mike Ifeanyi Ozoemena.

“They visited and saw the terrible condition of Mr. Akaneme and went back to brief Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, but since then till now, it’s been almost a month and nothing, except promises has been seen from the state government.

“Even the Waste Management agents from Salitz Ventures that were suspended by the government are yet to be punished.

“The policemen that accompanied them still roam the earth as free men even when the Nigeria Police Force, Anambra Command’s preliminary investigation has established they acted outside their line of duty.”

However, reacting to the incident, the Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Dr. Law Mefor, in a press briefing in Awka, the state capital, said that Governor Soludo had ordered the immediate payment of all the hospital bills of Akaneme till he leaves the hospital.

Mefor said, “We held Exco meeting and very key decisions were taken, and from the humanistic perspective, you know the case of Okechukwu Akaneme, the former Chairman of the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, that was brutalized by the contractor and his agents that were working for ASWAMA.

“The Soludo government had to dispatch the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Obidike and the MD of ASWAMA himself, Mike Ozoemenam.

“They went to Enugu to the hospital where the victim is hospitalized and assessed the situation. They returned with the verdict that the situation is very serious.

“The governor and the ANSEC (Anambra State Executive Council) decided to intervene and the summary of the intervention is that the government will be picking the entire bill. Not just the bills accumulated so far, but up till he leaves the hospital.”