Power-drunk female Immigration officer brutally assaults, maims, hospitalises security officers

A power-drunk female officer identified as Mrs. Stella Anugwa, an Assistant Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has, on Sunday, 18th June 2023, brutally assaulted, maimed and hospitalised three of the security officers of Penthouse Estate III located at Lugbe-Pyakasa in Abuja.

The Residents Association disclosed this in a petition signed by the Chairman of the Estate, Mr. A. O Folayan and the Legal Adviser, Barr. Swaben A. Dodo, dated 22nd June 2023.

The trouble started when the Anugwa’s son breached the security protocol at the entrance gate of the estate, refusing to stop for a check of his car before driving into the Estate.

When one of the security officers, Ernest Momoh, attempted to make him comply with the check protocol, the young man jumped out of the car, harassed the guard physically and slapped him.

Reacting in self-defense, the guard responded accordingly and the chief of the guards, Peter Abayol, who witnessed the incident, intervened to separate them but the brat reportedly called the mother.

That was when armed NIS security escort to Anugwa, evidently at her behest, arrived at the scene and unleashed mayhem on the guards.

Eyewitnesses said that they descended on the guard and when they were done with them, the heavily brutalised guards were left battered and bruised and rushed to a nearby health center, Modern Times Pharmacy, for first aid treatment.

One of the guards even got his android phone smashed by the rampaging NIS thugs.

Following the attack, the residents, who could not tolerate the inhuman attack on the security officers, petitioned the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, as well as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior in Abuja.

In the petition entitled “SOS petition against Mrs. Stella Anugwa, Assistant Comptroller of Immigration and other Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) officers for gross abuse of power by intimidation, assault, abduction, threats to lives and breach of public peace in Penthouse Estate 3, Lugbe, Abuja“, the undersigned described the physical assault, intimidation and violence that was meted on the security guards as unjustifiable.

The petition reads in full:

“We the undersigned write this petition on behalf of all residents of Penthouse Estate 3 Estate, Lugbe, Abuja (herein after referred to as the Association) to bring to your kind attention the gross abuse of power by brutal, unjustifiable physical assault, intimidation and violence that was meted on three of our Estate Security guards by NIS personnel and armed security guards/orderlies of Mrs Stella Anugwa, Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI) rtd, a resident of a neighboring Lexim 1 Estate, Lugbe, Abuja on Sunday 18th June 2023.

“The unfortunate incident began when the son of Mrs. S. Anugwa, breached the security protocol at the entrance gate of the estate by refusing to stop for a check of his car before driving into the Estate. Further attempt by a guard by name Ernest Momoh, to make him comply with the check protocol eventually made him to stop, only for him to come out to harass the guard physically and slapped him. The guard responded in equal measure in self-defence.

“The Head guard, Peter Abayol who witnessed the incident intervened to separate them. What followed a few moments later, ostensibly having been called by the son of Mrs S. Anugwa, was the arrival of the armed NIS security escort that Mrs S. Anugwa brought to the Estate. They promptly descended on the 1-lead guard, roughened him up, and forced him into the escort jeep and abducted him to the neighbouring Lexim I Estate where Mrs S. Anugwa resides. At Lexim I estate, they first stopped at an uncompleted building where the Head guard was subjected to dehumanizing corporal punishments and made to roll on the ground. Much later, he was taken to the residence of Mrs S. Anugwa battered and bruised.

“On hearing this, the Chairman of Penthouse Residents’ Association together with some members of the Estate Security Committee immediately went to Mrs S. Anugwa’s house and every effort to get her to release the abducted Head Guard was rebuffed despite her affirmation that the guard was not the offending guard. She insisted that the “offending- guard, Ernest must be produced. All the while, the Residents’ Association Chairman and his team were confronted with violent threats, by two of our Head guard’s tormentors in Chief who we suspect to be Immigration Service personnel either attached, working, or known to Mrs Stella Anugwa, that the guard will be carried away from the estate with possible risk of grievous consequences to his life and that nothing will happen.

“In an arrogant display of power and offensive abuse of authority, the armed NIS personnel took over the estate and went in search of the offending guard, Ernest, who fought with the son of Mrs S. Anugwa. They succeeded in bringing him back to Mrs Anugwa’s residence but with the Chair of the Penthouse Estate Security Committee, Mr Musa Lai who insisted he must follow them to wherever they wanted to take him. The whole Estate was thrown into a panic as the access gates were locked to prevent the feared abduction of our guards outside the Estate.

“When the guard, Ernest was requested to narrate the event that led to the scuffle with Mrs Anugwa’s son, he stated that the son was the one that first slapped him for daring to hit the boot of his car in the attempt to get him to stop for a security check. Our request for Mrs. S. Anugwa to bring his son to narrate his own side of the story was stoutly rejected by her, alleging that all the accounts of Ernest as narrated were all lies, even though she was not there when the event happened.

“Without any inkling of what would follow, the same two hefty men we suspect to be Immigration Service personnel in mufti but known to Mrs S. Anugwa descended with extreme anger on Ernest and physically assaulted him with vicious blows and kicks right in our presence. These they did on the ground that Ernest was not looking sober nor remorseful and neither thought it fit to begin to apologise to Mrs S. Anugwa. To them the hefty physique of young Ernest was even found so annoying.

“While all these were going on, Mrs S. Anugwa merely stood by and witnessed all the aggression, violence, abuse, and unprofessional conduct of the two personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service. Having satiated their maniacal anger and bruised ego, Mrs S. Anugwa and her officers, together with the NIS armed escort allowed us to go with the guards. Evidence of the extent of the brutalization of our guards is in the attached photos after first aid treatment at Modern Times Pharmacy, Lugbe.

“Presently, the conduct of Mrs Stella Anugwa, has now become a source of great apprehension to all residents of Penthouse Estate, as we are most certain that if she were to be the one in the car when the incident at our gate occurred, then greater violence would have been visited not just on our guards but also on residents by the armed NIS guards. Now, we do not know who her next target of arrogant, and unprofessional abuse of authority will be.

“Sadly, the only access road to Lexim 1 Estate where Mrs S. Anugwa resides is through the Penthouse Estate entrance gate. The guards her people grievously assaulted are the same guards that man our gate and who do extend by their work schedule, the usual courtesies of checking vehicle boots, opening and closing of the gates, which Mrs S. Anugwa and her family equally enjoyed, each time residents enter or exit the Penthouse Estate. Sadly too, this unfortunate incident with Mrs. S. Anugwa is just another in a series of her uncivilized conduct in the past.

“To ensure that there is no repeat of such aberrant conduct and unprofessional abuse of authority by people like Mrs. S. Anugwa, who obviously has fallen short of our expectation of a good role model to our youths in the estate, we now write this petition to seek redress and plead that commensurate penalties are meted out to Mrs S. Anugwa. the two officers and the armed NIS personnel/escort guards involved in the brutalization and unprovoked assault on our guards and their aborted attempt to abduct the Head guard.

“In conclusion, we hereby urge you to use your good office to investigate this matter and bring all the culprits as mentioned above to book. This is the only pathway to truly build a society where the rights of all citizens, irrespective of status, will be respected. It will also send a message to all our compatriots who bear arms that their authority is for the maintenance of law, order, safety, and public peace and not for arbitrariness or oppression of fellow citizens.

“On our part as an Association, we have formally written to the Chairman of Lexim 1 Estate Residents’ Association, where Mrs S. Anugwa resides, to inform him of our instructions to our security guards to cease rendering services to her and her household on the account of her brutalisation of the guards in the sordid affair of Sunday 18th June 2023 herein complained about until this matter is resolved.

“As we look forward to a positive response to this petition, please accept our due regards.” END.

See a copy of the document/petition attached below:

News Band forwarded a copy of the petition to Mrs. Anugwa on Wednesday and she promised to respond but has yet to do so at the moment of this publication.

This medium also contacted the Nigeria Immigration Service over the conduct of their personnel via telephone but all the lines were switched off and the messages through email got no response either. Read more.

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©Copyright 2023 News Band

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