APGA Chieftain Hospitalized After Brutal Beating by Anti-Touting Squad

A chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr. Wilfred Ikechukwu Ezike has been hospitalized following injuries sustained during assault by operatives of the Anambra Special Anti-Touting Squad.

Ezike, popularly known as Mgbiligba was brutalized by suspected SASA operatives with pestle.

A viral video on the internet captured the dramatic moments the Special Anti-Touting Squad used pestle to attack Mr. Ezike, striking him on the leg, and the other parts of his body while he pleaded for mercy in their cell at Onitsha.

It was gathered that after the attack, he was whisked to Awka where they allegedly stripped him and compelled him to take an oath that he would not institute any legal action against them.

Ezike, whose wife is reportedly pregnant with his first child, regained his freedom after a night in SASA cell, following an intervention of vigilante operatives.

He is said to be receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital in Onitsha.

The embattled chieftain was said to have declare that his life was in danger because of a grand conspiracy amongst some government officials to eliminate him.

According to him, it was because he insisted that he should be paid a certain N12 million owed him by a government official that they cooked up falsehoods against him including accusing him of petitioning against them at the House of Assembly and State Criminal Investigation Department respectively.

He claimed that revenue cabals set him up with the Anti-Touting Squad who invited him to OIC Filling Station near Area Command Onitsha and bundled him into their vehicle with knives, guns and all manner of weapons.

Ezike said they took him to Upper Iweka in Onitsha where they had about four offices and began to brutally unleash terror on him using pestle on him ferociously until they condemned his two legs on the orders of the dreaded government official who refused to pay him back his N12 million.
He added that the viral video of his beating him was made by men of the Anti-Touting squad because he requested for his money.

He denied claims that he was not a tout rather a reputable politician with a lot of businesses in Onitsha.

He said, “They broke my legs with blood all over my body. I told them to leave me that I didn’t do anything. They refused. They are the ones who made the video of where they brutalised me and sent it online.

“They stripped me naked in their cell and interrogated me on what I do for a living, I told them. I was wearing only a white boxers short while they beat me like a common criminal in their cell with blood all over my body.
“I would have died in their cell, if not for AVG officers who were around that night to help me survive till the next morning because I was bleeding seriously.

“After inflicting serious pains on me, they still forced me to take an oath the next morning that I won’t say anything about my ugly experience with them. I won’t do that because my life is no longer safe. I will continue to tell the world how some government officials used Anti-Touting Squad against me just because I demanded for my money.

“People have been calling me all over the world to sympathize with me because I am not a tout. I have my legitimate businesses and I am also a contractor with the Anambra State Government.

“Even though APGA hasn’t recognised my efforts, I have continued to sacrifice for the party at my own expense. I don’t have any criminal records in my life.

“I am calling on all security agencies especially the Nigeria Police to come to my rescue because some government officials are bent on using the Anti-Touting Squad to terminate my life.”

When contacted to respond to what Hon. Wilfred Ikechukwu Ezike told our correspondent, the State Director Anambra Anti-Touting Squad, Hon. Solomon Chukwuebuka Onwuemene, referred to a certain video clip he released as his official response.

In the said video clips, one of them which had a certain young lad, identified himself as Ikechukwu Chizoba of Enugu State origin, said upon interrogation by men of the Special Anti-Touting Squad that he was collecting N300 from Keke drivers and delivered about N9000 to Mgbiligba on a daily basis from touting.

Another video which had a middle aged man confessed upon interrogation that he was touting for Mgbiligba in one of the parks at Onitsha.

The suspect who identified himself in the video as Ifeanyi Ezike and hails from Aguluzigbo in Anaocha council area of the State, said he collected N300 from each vehicle at a loading pit and rendered account to Mgbiligba everyday.