Okon Effiong Ekpenyong, a lecturer with the Department of Business Management, University of Calabar has been horribly brutalized by members of the Nigerian Immigration Service, losing four teeth in the process.
The NIS officials brutalized the lecturer after accusing him of making an illegal u-turn in front of the NIS headquarters in Calabar.
Effiong, narrating the incident said his car broke down near the HQ and after fixing the fault, he was leaving as NIS officials met him and assaulted him breaking his four teeth and stealing his N50,000.
He said, “After the car developed a fault, I called some people to help push it off the road and I went home to get my two sons to buy fuel in a jerry can because I suspected it might be petrol since the gauge was faulty.
“I tried to start the car after refueling, but it did not start. We had to push it down the Bassey Oqua Street, which is close to the NIS residential quarters.
“Immediately the car started, two NIS officials flagged me down; I obeyed. They said I had just made a U-turn at an unauthorised point and they concluded that I was a Boko Haram suspect, adding that they would not waste time in dealing with me.
“Immediately, about 10 other officials joined them, they forced me out of the car and started hitting me with gun butts and other weapons. I passed out in the process.”
He identified a deputy comptroller, a chief superintendent and a male and female junior officials as his assailants, saying he took note of them before losing consciousness.
He woke up in a cell where a man identified as the Provost begged him not to press charges and released him to go to the hospital.
The wounded lecturer went to the Police to report the matter.
Police authorities have been investigating the matter but NIS officials have refused to make themselves available for questioning.