A businessman has narrated how he was beaten up on Thursday by a team of task force officers led by the Chief Security Officer of the University of Port Harcourt, Alali Pedro, for filming an ongoing demolition with his phone.
The victim, who gave his name as George John to our correspondent, said he does business where the CSO-led taskforce was demolishing shops.
John said he was informed that a group of young men led by the chief security officer of the school was demolishing shops at UNIPORT, where he does business too and he came out to watch and video.
He said the task force saw him videoing the demolition exercise and got angry, leading to a spontaneous assault on him, adding that he was thoroughly beaten by the task force
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He further said his handset was seized by the taskforce before handing him over to the police for committing no crime, adding that he was later let go by the police after the intervention of a concerned citizen.
Also speaking, an eyewitness who craved anonymity faulted the school authority for demolishing traders’ shops within the environs of the school without prior notice to the shop owners.
He condemned the violent attacks on John, saying that the victim was beaten to stupor before his very eyes, maintaining that the actions of the school authority had shown that the school is incompassionate towards indigent traders.
The witness was quoted as saying that: “There is an incident going on right now as we speak in UNIPORT where traders’ shops are being demolished by a team of taskfirce led by the Chief Security Officer of the school.
“Somebody was beaten to stupor by this taskforce just because he was videoing demolished shops with his phone and was later handed over to the police for filming the demolition with his phone.”
