Victor Uwadinachi, an assistant superintendent of police, went missing while traveling to the police headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos State, and his family has expressed regret over the incident.
Reports has it that Uwadinachi, who was recently reassigned to the Abia State Police Command, traveled to Lagos State on business by bus from Umuahia.
According to reports, the policeman traveled to the Lagos State Police Command to obtain his papers in an effort to transfer it to Abia State.
He claimed that the shooters shot Uwadinachi after learning that he was a police officer, and that they then told the driver to keep driving while leaving Uwadinachi for dead.
The lawyer said, “On August 6, 2022, Uwadinachi was en-route from Umuahia to Lagos on official trip to the police command in the state to get his file and transfer to the Abia State Police Command.
“Uwadinachi and other passengers were in a New Testament Motors’s bus driven by a driver that was aware that he is a policeman. When they arrived at Orsu/Nkwere Orlu Road, gunmen at the security checkpoint discovered that Uwadinachi was a policeman.
“After discovering, they asked him to come down from the vehicle, searched him vigorously, saw his police identification card, and shot him in the leg and hands. They commanded the driver to move on and left him in a pool of his blood.”
The lawyer claimed that when other passengers were reached via phone numbers found in the transport company’s record, they provided confirmation of the attack.
However, he said that despite leaving Uwadinachi with the shooters, the bus’s driver, Ekweme, never reported to the police or any security post on the route.
The lawyer claimed that Uwadinachi’s family members reported the incident to the Imo State Police Command for inquiry in an effort to learn the whereabouts of the missing police officer.
“As we speak, he (Ekweme) is yet to make himself available for investigation at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Owerri,” the lawyer said.
One of the passengers of the bus, simply identified as Pastor Chimezie, confirmed the incident, saying, “What you just said is true.
On how the gunmen identified the policeman, he said, “They requested us to show our identity card. When he brought his ID card out of his bag, they shouted, ‘so, you’re a policeman.’ Then they fired shots at him.”
The phone numbers listed on the New Testament Motors passenger manifest could not be reached, making attempts to contact the company fruitless.
When contacted, the Abia State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, said, “I’m not aware of the case. The command does not have such information.”
The spokesperson for the Imo State Police Command, Micheal Abattam, when contacted, said, “I’m not aware and it means that the command didn’t get such a report.”
