The Nation reports that Nwafor slumped after he was released on Thursday, May 19, by police and was immediately rushed to the hospital where
he is currently receiving treatment.
The NLC chairman and some other Labour leaders in the state were tear-gassed, beaten, thrown into a police van and taken to Ebonyi state police headquarters where they were detained by the operatives.
Nwafor, who lead a peaceful protest staged by NLC against the increase in the fuel pump price, was intercepted at Pastoral Centre along old Abakaliki-Enugu expressway.
Police ordered the NLC chairman and other protesters to move back to their office but they resisted and insisted on continuing the demonstration. Their resistance angered the police officers who used force on them.
Nwafor was seen rolling on the ground while the police officers were beating him hard, other NLC members also had their fair share of the brutality.
Narrating his ordeal from the hospital bed, Nwafor said that the protesters were treated like common criminals as they were indiscriminately attacked, their bus and phones were seized.
“Our greatest surprise was that this team was led by an assistant commissioner of police in charge of operations and he was commanding his men to deal with me and even when I was on the ground he was matching me and ordered about five of them to lift me and throw me into a hilux van,” he said.
Nwafor alleged that the state commissioner of police, Peace Ibekwe Abdallah, was the one who ordered the attack on him and his colleagues because they embarked on the protest without getting her approval.
However, the NLC chairman denied the allegation saying he notified her through writing and the commissioner of police attested she had received it.
Nwafor claimed that the police even attacked the men of Department of State Security Services (DSS) who were sent to provide security for them.
“We even gave the police the letter before DSS and the DSS sent their men, they were on the crew with their vehicle following us and guiding what we were doing.
“But to our greatest surprise, police did not consider this, one of the DSS men was also attacked by police and his gun and phones collected forcefully from him. And before the CP, they checked his phone to make sure he did not video anything that happened,” he said.
Reacting to the allegation, the police CP denied that the workers had been attacked.
Describing the protest as an unlawful assembly which could lead to breakdown of law and order, she said that her men used minimal force to disperse the crowd. She added that the protesters did not inform the police before embarking on the protest.
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