When on February 14, 2018, Anome Emereh stepped out of his home for school, little did he know that he would not come back with one of his hands. He had bidden his parents and neighbours goodbye that morning with a promise to be back as soon as school closed for the day to help with some house chores.
However, he had barely left his home environment when he was accosted by three boys, who offered to escort him to school that day. Since they were obviously not close friends and this was not a practice he was familiar with, Anome refused their offer and simply headed for school alone.
On his way back from school that same day, the boys, who, unknown to Anome, were still lurking around, waiting for his return, pounced on him as soon as he came closer. One of them, according to Anome, made an attempt to stab him but he used his hand to block the broken bottle, which at the end of the day, led to a bad cut on his left hand. The wound, which was very deep eventually resulted in the amputation of that hand at the hospital.
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Narrating the sad incident, the 15-year-old Junior Secondary School pupil of Army Day Secondary School, Owode Yewa, Ogun State, said: ”I thought they had gone that day but no, they were still hanging around our house. I went to school with my friends but on my way back, they attacked me. They are not students of my school. When they attacked me; I couldn’t do anything because they were three in number and they overpowered me. The boy wanted to stab me on my neck but I raised my hands up to block it, that was why it cut me that deep and it led to the amputation.”
Although the three accused were instantly arrested by the police, sources close to the court alleged that two of them, who are siblings, Sulaiman Adesina and Ahmed Adesina, were released on the second day of the incident, leaving their friend, Lateef Ebunolorun, in police custody.
The source further disclosed that Mr Ebun Adesina, the father of the two boys, was instantly arrested for aiding the escape of his children from police custody at the Owode Police Station on the second day of the incident.
Lamenting that justice has been delayed over the case, a Human Rights Activist with Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, who is currently in charge of the case, toldThe Nigerian Xpress that it is not only sad that Anome’s hand was chopped off because of his refusal to join the accused boys’ secret cult, known as AYE, it is painful that two of the said culprits and their father were set free.
He said: “We are appalled by the unbridled manner, with which the trial judge perverted the course of justice by setting the accused free on frivolous ground on Wednesday 4th of July, 2018. Though, there is ongoing trial of the two prime suspects, pending before a trial Magistrate at the Magistrate Court 1 in the same Ilaro Judicial Division,” he said.
Anome Emereh’s father, Mr. Thomas Emereh, who currently feels cheated said the suspects’ father, a member of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC), in the area, has been boasting around that nothing would come out of the case.
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He, however, demands that the parents of the accused boys pick up the hospital bill incurred on the treatment of his son for payment and also buy an artificial hand for him.
According to him, “The parents of these boys have come to me for negotiation on what to do and I told them to go and buy an artificial hand for my son and pay the hospital bill. I asked them to give me N2.5 million on the expenses I spent at the hospital; I have all the document of payments I have made to the hospital since we started with me.
“We have been in discussion with the father of the boy; there is no agreement yet. In fact, the father of the boy is even boasting now that no one has ever taken him to court and won, so, I can never win the case in court. The way the case is even going, it appears that the father knows about the act perpetrated by the boy and his gangs. I was there when the father was asking him why he allowed them to catch him in the first instance and his subsequent handover to the police. The man is a member of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) in the area; he has been going here and there, boasting nothing will come out of the case,” he said.
But Anome does not just want an artificial hand, he wants justice. “I may not be able to have my hand back but I want the perpetrators’ families not to just pay for my hospital bill and buy me an artificial hand, I want them to be brought to book. ” he said.
