The management of GUO Transport described the incident as a criminal assault and threatened to pursue justice.
By Jeffrey Agbo
An appointee of Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State, Osita Onuko, has apologised to the management of GUO Transport Company and its driver who was brutalised by security personnel on his instruction.
In a statement on Saturday, Onuko, the managing director of Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA), said he took full responsibility for the action of the security officials on Friday even when he had left the UNIZIK Junction, scene of the incident.
The GUO Transport Company driver who came in from Lagos was brutalised by a combined team of police, NSCDC and Anambra Vigilance Group operatives following a traffic incident with ACTDA boss on the Ukpo axis of Enugu-Onitsha expressway.
Onuko said he was travelling towards Awka with two NSCDC personnel in his vehicle when the driver tried to overtake dangerously and swiftly veered into his lane thereby endangering his life and those of others.
He said efforts to stop the GUO driver who continued his journey without any sense of apology was futile as he refused to pull over even at police checkpoints.
Onuko said, “Given that the expressway is a two-way drive, he could not meet up with his moves to overtake me and other vehicles in the line, because two heavy-duty trucks were approaching; he suddenly veered into my lane, it would have been a serious disaster.
“He eventually stopped at UNIZIK junction and the two NSCDC who were in their uniforms approached and asked him to alight but he locked up himself and his passengers in the bus.
“At this point, the atmosphere was very heated, I had to call the police and Community-based vigilante within the environment.
“I told them to take him to the police station for a proper check and drove off from the scene. A few minutes later while in my office, the driver called me to apologise.”
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Onuko said he later called the DPO to free him as the driver had shown demonstrable remorse but did not know that he was seriously brutalised in the course of arrest.
According to him, “I learnt later that the young man resisted arrest which led to a lot of violent conduct in his arrest
“I take full responsibility for all that, and I also apologise to the young man, his company, GUO, and my friends and well-wishers who have been embarrassed by my association with such an act.”
Meanwhile, the management of GUO Transport, in a statement, described the incident as a criminal assault and threatened to pursue justice for its driver through the court.
The company called on Soludo to condemn the conduct of the official and set up a panel of inquiry into the incident as to curtail the excesses of his officials and forestall recurrence.
The company apologised to its passengers whom it said were not only traumatised by the horror but were left stranded on the highway.
