Customer In Court For Assaulting BEDC Staff In Asaba, Case Adjourned To March 4
MAGISTRATES Court 5, Umuda, Asaba, Delta State capital has began hearing on the suit between Commissioner of Police versus Amaefula Chinonso Uzoma, a customer of Benin Electricity Plc in Asaba.
Our correspondent who was present in court during the resumption of hearing, reports that the charge sheet with charge No: CMA/32c/2024, read: “that you Amaefula Chinonso Uzoma, male, aged 38 years, on the 23rd day of January, 2024 at No. 9, Isitua Ndah Street, in Asaba did unlawfully assault one Ikpe Helen Edmond, female, a staff of BEDC by grabbing her on her shirt, thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 352 of the Criminal Code Cap C21 Vol1 Laws of Delta State of Nigeria 2006.”
It further read that you “on the same date and place did unwillfully and unlawfully damage one Tecno Camon 20 valued at N120, 000 and one Itel P55 phone valued at N80, 000, properties of one Ikpe Helen Edmond and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 451 of the Criminal Code Cap C21 Vol. 1 Laws of Delta State of Nigeria 2006.”
The Regional Head, BEDC, Asaba, Mr. Henry Onovwaka, said BEDC is always willing to thrash out issues with customers, but curiously, when Mr. Amaefula came to the police station with his lawyer, all the latter could say was “let’s go to court.” Head, Branding and Corporate Communications, BEDC, Mrs. Evelyn Gbiwen said BEDC has zero tolerance for assault on staff in line of duty, while she reiterated the caution to customers to use the right channels put in place by the company and not to resort to violence.
Testifying at the hearing, Helen Ikpi who is a senior commercial officer of the BEDC in Asaba told the court that she led a team to the area, which is behind the popular Konwea Plaza in Asaba, saying she is in charge of a transformer in the area. Ikpi narrated that she brought out a device which helps her to know who is owing the electricity company. That way, Ikpi said she discovered that Amaefula had not paid his electricity bills in the past three months, with an outstanding debt worth over a million naira.
According to the senior commercial officer, she wrote a disconnection order which she presented to Amaefula’s wife as the husband was not at home at the time of the visit by the BEDC team. She said his wife then put a call across to her husband. In the meantime, Ikpi said she moved on to continue checking other customers in the neighbourhood. She said that she overheard Amaefula asking the staff why they had disconnected him but the men asked him to wait for their madam to get the answers he was looking for.
So as Ikpi approached, Amaefula confronted her with the same question. She said that she explained to him that he had not paid for the past three months as agreed with the community, apart from the outstanding debts, also explaining to him that she is aware that the transformer had been bad, which necessitated the agreement with the community.
“But what happened next was that he brought out his phone and started making videos saying that he was disconnected because he refused to offer gratification to the BEDC staff”, Ikpi testified, while she said that Amaefula bragged that he will reconnect himself in the next three hours.” This prompted Ikpi to get an evidence of the disconnection using her phone to snap the point where the disconnection had been done. At that point, all hell was let loose. She said Amaefula grabbed her clothing violently, while in his violent display, her phones fell hard on the ground, thus getting damaged.
But it appeared, as BEDC’s counsel pointed out at the court, that the defendant had written a cross-petition to the police, alleging car-theft, use of thugs and other offenses against Ikpi. Hence, a man who attended the court sitting wondered why the police which investigated the case of assault and charged the defendant to court would turn round to entertain a petition from that same defendant on the same case and sending a police invitation to the complainant.
Meanwhile, when it was time for cross examination, counsel to the defendant, Ugochukwu Okoli said he was yet to get the relevant documents that would enable him to do so. The case was thereby adjourned to March 4.
