RAYMOND OZOJI reports
The Managing Director of the Anambra State Waste Management Agency (ASWAMA) Chief Mike Ozoemena has exonerated his agency from the news making the rounds that ASWAMA revenue touts allegedly broke the spinal cord of one Okechukwu Akaneme in a bid to enforce payment of sanitation levy in Onitsha recently.
Ozoemena who spoke to HEADLINE NEWS exclusively concerning the issue, said although it was an unfortunate incident but ASWAMA, according to him, didn't authorize the contractor who was said to have recruited miscreants to carryout his job, to manhandle someone to the point of breaking his spinal cord because they wanted to enforce payment of sanitation levy.
He said ASWAMA has consistently warned all her contractors to always seek legal means in the enforcement of demand notices and sue defaulters to court not taking the laws into their own hands as in the case of Mr. Okechukwu Akaneme's ordeal.
Though Ozoemena said that the contractor in question has been suspended indefinitely for the said inhumane act against Mr. Okechukwu Akaneme, he equally disclosed that himself and the Commissioner for Health Dr. Ben Afam Obidike have visited Mr. Akaneme at the hospital in Enugu.
Ozoemena said, " The person is a Pay-Direct Contractor working with the Anambra State Government. So it not ASWAMA agent because government didn't send the person to go and do what he did.
It was an unfortunate situation and we have asked them not to go to anywhere with thugs. All our contractors don't go to anywhere with thugs. So they went to court and obtained court order and also involved the police.
So what happened between them and the man is what I don't know because I wasn't there. But when I learnt of it, myself and the Commissioner for Health went to Enugu to see the man. We saw his state and felt sorry about that and Mr. Governor has done something in that regard. We just pray that the man gets well because he is a citizen of Anambra State and what happened is a thing we are deeply sorry about because nobody set out to injure anybody."
Ozoemena emphasized that Governor Soludo has done something to offset the hospital bills of Mr. Okechukwu Akaneme, stressing that injury to one is injury to all.
He said, " We have suspended the contractor already even though we know what happened was an accident; we have suspended him with immediate effect and police is already investigating the matter. "
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