Governor Hope Uzodinma’s brother, Uche Uzodinma is apparently not one to waste words when he could use punches to enforce compliance.
There are reported cases of Uche and his thugs throwing caution to the wind to unleash unnecessary brutality on their hapless victims.
Uche Uzodinma, the governor’s younger brother is a known face in government circles and a major contractor in his brother’s administration.
The offences that provoke his attack are almost the same all the time – either one mistakenly drove into his road work or someone else delayed in heeding his order to reverse – the consequences are always dreadful for the victim.
The issue remains that in all occasions; he still walks free and bears no consequences for his actions.
Barely three weeks after Uche Uzodinma and his thugs savagely attacked a journalist, Comrade Precious Nwadike and beat him to an inch of his life, a number of persons have come up to tell their own stories in the hand of the Governor’s brother.
In a live radio phone-in program, another resident of the state, Mr. Eregbu narrated a heart-rending tale of how the governor’s brother brutalized him apparently for not reversing his vehicle fast enough away from his road contract work.
“There was no visible caution sign and I was driving with my son. As soon as I hit his stretch of road, I suddenly saw him shouting ‘Go back! Go back! Before I could turn my car, they pounced on me, forced me out of the car and immediately started beating me. My 9-year old son who is Asthmatic could not hold down what he was seeing and rushed out of the car shouting, crying and begging for his father while Uche Uzodinma was busy slapping and head-butting me right before my son.”
Mr. Eregbu and his son headed straight to the hospital after the Governor’s brother’s attack.
While condemning the attack on Eregbu and Nwadike, another resident of Owerri, Maurice Oliver Nnaji recalled how Uche Uzodinma on October 16 last year, allegedly ordered his thugs to beat him up because he expressed his opinion on the quality of the construction work (Uche’s project) along Port-Harcourt road, Owerri.
Though there have been calls from individuals and groups for his arrest and prosecution, nothing has been done to bring him to book.
Reacting however, Uzodinma denied attacking anybody saying he was not a mad man to be assaulting people like that. He said he descended so low to supervise road projects in Imo.
His words: “I do not know what you mean. Am I a mad man to be harassing and assaulting people like that? I’m well educated, I studied overseas and I know what human right is all about. I should not be demeaned because I descended so low to be supervising road for the betterment of Imo people. I do not know the people in question and I would not succumb to their blackmail.”
Meanwhile, a radio commentator, Chief Jude Ugbaja who described Uche Uzodinma’s actions as despicable urged the governor to order for the arrest and prosecution of his brother to serve as a deterrent to others.