Right Group Petitions Navy Chief Over Assault At Hotel In Delta

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DELTA STATE GOVERNOR EMMANUEL UDUAGHAN.
The Forum for Justice and Human Rights Defence (FJHD) has called on the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) to investigate the assault on some policemen and others by personnel of NNS Delta in Warri, Delta State after a drinking spree at a hotel in Effurun, near, Warri.

The incident   sparked off heavy shooting and destruction of properties worth several millions of naira by the Navy personnel who were said to have attacked the mobile police on guard duty at the hotel  over their refusal to pay up their bills.

A statement by the National Coordinator of the group, Oghenejabor Ikimi, said a petition had been sent to the office of CNS, Rear Admiral Usman Jubril, over the malicious act.

Ikimi said the petition was deposed to by Hon.
Efe Afe, a former lawmaker in Delta State House of Assembly and the Managing Director, Kayriott Hotel and Suites, situate along Refinery Road, Effurun.

The statement read: 'That at about 3:30pm on Thursday, the 30th of January, 2014, one Navy Lieutenant Izokpu attached to the Nigerian Navy, NNS Delta in Warri, Delta State in company of a female friend and a young man visited his aforesaid hotel and was attended to at the Hotel's pool bar by a waitress named Rachael Usen.

'That the said waitress at the end of the stay of the above trio demanded payment of the sum of N8,500.

00 (Eight thousand, five hundred naira) from the trio for the food, drinks and ice cream which the said Lieutenant Izokpu and his friends had ordered and consumed, but Lieutenant Izokpu claimed that he had already paid for same to the consternation of the waitress who insisted that she had not been paid a dime .

'That the said waitress there and then demanded from the said Naval Officer the receipt issued to him for the payment of the above food, drinks and ice cream consumed by them.

'At that point, the waitress invited her supervisor who in turn invited the chef and the pastry attendant to enquire from them if the said trio had paid them for their above services and they both chorused in the negative.

'That when the said Naval Officer could not produce any evidence of payment, he later brought out a paltry sum of N3,000.

00 (Three thousand naira) from his pocket in settlement of the aforesaid bill and which said sum was rejected by the waitress as same was not a enough to cover the cost of the food, drinks and ice cream consumed by the trio.

'At that point, the Naval Officer became angry and violently slapped the waitress and the above attracted Hon.

Efe Afe and some mobile policemen guarding the Hotel.

'That when the Naval Officer and his two friends became very aggressive, the leader of the mobile policemen guarding the said hotel put up a call to the Nigeria Police Station, Ekpan for policemen to apprehend the above trio to keep peace.

'The above call was heeded by the said Police Station who in turn sent three policemen led by a police sergeant from the Police Station to the Hotel.

'That on getting to the Hotel and in the process of apprehending the above trio, the Naval Officer who was on mufti identified himself as Navy Lieutenant Izokpu and in turn put a call to the Naval Barracks, and within some few minutes nine (9) Naval Ratings in one Toyota Hilux stormed the Kayriott Hotel and Suites and started shooting sporadically and unleashed mayhem on workers and properties of the said Hotel to the chagrin of lodgers and other customers alike.

'That in the melee that ensured, workers, lodgers and customers including Honourable Efe Afe were severely beaten up and his Hotel automatic sliding door worth over N10,000,000.

00 (Ten million naira) was shot at and damaged by the ravaging Naval Ratings who in the process lined the Hotel walls with bullet holes on the orders of Navy Lieutenant Izokpu.

'That one Police Sergeant Samson Ofoyeju was terribly beaten up in the process by the aforesaid ravaging Naval Ratings on the orders of Lieutenant Izokpu and the said policeman is presently admitted in the emergency ward of the Central Hospital, Warri were he is receiving treatment .

'In the light forgoing, we state that the above conduct of Navy Lieutenant Izokpu is no doubt condemnable and unbecoming of a Naval Officer and as such, we call on the Chief of Naval Staff, for a comprehensive investigation into this matter with a view to bringing Navy Lieutenant Izokpu and his cohorts including the nine (9) Naval Ratings to book as we have the further instructions of our client to enforce his fundamental rights in the High Court of Justice and claim damages at large against the said Naval Officer and the Nigerian Navy as justice delayed is justice denied.

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