15 oil workers brutalised by Naval Officers in Abia

Some officers of the Naval School of Finance and Logistics, Owerri-Nta in Abia State, have allegedly forced 15 workers of an oil company to lie in mud water and drink it in the process.

One of the victims, Opara, an engineer with the oil company, Stock Gap Fuels Limited, which is building a mega petrol station/gas plant on Elizabeth Avenue, by Aba-Owerri Road in the Government Residential Area of the state, said they came to work on the site on Tuesday and at about 2.00 pm left for the bank to withdraw money, with which to pay the workers when he got a call that Naval Officers were brutalising some workers at the site.

Opara said, “It was while at the bank that I got a phone call that about 12 Naval men were maltreating workers at the site. So, I quickly left the bank and when I got to the site, I saw 16 of my workers, including our secretary, a female inside the mud and the Naval officers were stepping on them and ordering them to drink the mud water.

“So, when I tried to approach the commanding officer, who was at the site giving orders to his men, he told his subordinates not to allow me get close to him and based on the instruction, his boys chased me away and I had to call my office in Port Harcourt.”

He further disclosed that he stood afar and watched as the Naval officers used their bayonets to puncture the tyres of tippers supplying them sand.

While narrating her ordeal, the secretary and store keeper, identified as Juliet Enwereji, said she heard the Naval men who share the same fence with the company ordering workers at the site to go outside.

Enwereji added that on stepping out of the office to see what was happening outside, one of the officers pointed a gun at her while the commanding officer ordered her to lie down in the mud water.

It was gathered that this was not the first time the Naval officers, who had previously expressed displeasure over the structure being erected near his house.