By Onome Oghenetega
A medical doctor and President of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at Delta State University Teaching Hospital, (Delsuth), Oghara, Dr. Harrison Adja, has accused operatives of the State Police Command of shooting his car for attempting to overtake a patrol van.
Dr. Adja said the incident occurred along the busy at the Agbor section of the Benin/Asaba Highway in Agbor, Ika South LGA of the state.
Narrating how he narrowly escaped death, said the trigger-happy policemen shot at his car after slowing down for the police patrol van.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday in Asaba, Dr. Adja claimed that the operatives were driving a lone patrol van when the incident occurred.
Adja said he was attempting to overtake the police van with registration number RBC 970 TN along the Benin-Onitsha expressway on his way to Asaba when a policeman pointing a rifle at him, ordered him not to overtake them.
The ARD President, who however, explained that he did not overtake the police vehicle before he was shot, said if not for God saving Grace, he would have been dead.
He said the gunshot destroyed his radiator, condenser and power steering pump and pipes of his vehicle.
“I was driving on the Benin-Onitsha expressway and about overtaking a police patrol van when they(policemen) pointed their guns at me to go back, so I slowed down and was using my hand to demonstrate what was inscribed on my car, and the next thing I heard was God punish doctor… I was still behind them when they summarily opened fire at me, hitting the car and bursting the radiator, condenser and power steering pipes of my official vehicle”, Adja narrated.
He said, in fright, he lost control of his vehicle and ran off the road into a gutter thereby causing more damage to his official vehicle.
According to him, the policemen at Agbor Police Divisional Headquarters where he went to report the matter were hostile, adding that they refused to take his statement but kept him waiting for over three hours.
He said he went to Delta state Police Command in Asaba with details of the near tragic incident and is yet to get any response from the police.
He said, “I have reached out to the Commissioner of Police, Delta State Command with the details and I am hoping to get results, but I am yet to get any result. Same fate one may assume befell the gruesome murder of our colleague in Oghara few weeks ago, and a lawyer few months ago… Can we actually call this our country if things remain like this? Bleak and no signs of light in the tunnel?”
Meanwhile, effort to get reaction from the spokesman of the Delta Police Command, DSP Bright Edafe, was unsuccessful as he failed to react to enquiry on the incident.
This incident is coming barely a month after the killing of a Lagos based lawyer, Mrs Bolanle Raheem, on Christmas Day by policemen.
