Anome Emereh, a pupil of Army Day Secondary School, Owode Yewa, Ogun State, has demanded justice after losing his right hand in an attack by his classmate, Lateef Ebunolorun.
Emereh, who has since been forced to write with his left hand, lamented that the experience was gruelling.
City Round learnt that the plight of the Junior Secondary School 3 pupil started on February 14, 2018 when he was reportedly stabbed in the shoulder by Ebunolorun, because Emereh saw Ebunolorun taking a substance suspected to be drugs on his way home from school that day and cautioned him.
The advice did not go down well with Ebunolorun who reportedly challenged Emereh to a duel.
After they were separated, Ebunolorun reportedly picked a broken bottle and inflicted a deep cut on Emereh’s shoulder. The hand was eventually amputated due to the severity of the injury.
Narrating his ordeal to City Round during the week, 17-year-old Emereh said the injury had impacted his academic activities negatively.
He said, “I was returning home from school on that day when I saw Lateef (Ebunolorun) taking drugs. He was with one Adisa and his brother, Ahmed Adesina.
“I advised him to stop taking drugs and he started abusing me. He grabbed my clothes and punched me in the chest. I also punched him and people separated us.
“I continued my journey, not knowing that he was trailing me with a broken bottle. By the time I looked back, he was already close to me.
“He wanted to stab me in the neck with the bottle, but I used my hand to defend myself. That was how he stabbed me in the shoulder. People wanted to hold him, but Ahmed assisted him to escape.
“Since my hand was amputated, I have been forced to write with my left hand. Most times when teachers give us long notes to write in the class, I miss a lot because I can’t write fast with the left hand.
“I need an artificial hand and the person who did this to me must face justice. That is the only thing that can compensate for my injury.”
Emereh’s father, Thomas, a 72-year-old retired soldier, said he spent his pension and also borrowed money to treat his son.
He said, “I got a call that my son had been killed. By the time I got to the scene, he had been rushed to a hospital. A doctor said the wound was very deep.
“He invited another doctor to examine him. Eventually, they referred him to a hospital in Port Novo, Benin Republic. When we got there, they said he might die unless the hand was amputated.”
Ebunolorun, who was arrested four months after the incident, and Adesina, had been taken to court.
Ebunolorun was arraigned before an Ogun State Magistrates’ Court sitting in Ilaro on two counts bordering on assault, while Adisa was charged with aiding evasion of arrest.
The charges read in part, “That you, Lateef Ebunolorun, and others still at large on February 14, 2018, at about 2pm, at Army Day Secondary School area, Owode Yewa, in the Ilaro Magisterial District, did unlawfully conspire to commit felony to wit, causing grievous harm to one Anome Emereh by stabbing him with a broken bottle in his right hand, which resulted in it being amputated, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 332 (1 sub-section 2) and Section 516(1) of the Criminal Code Laws of Ogun State of Nigeria, 2006.
“That you, Ahmed Adesina, on the same date, time and place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did unlawfully assist Lateef Ebunolorun and others still at large to escape arrest, prosecution and punishment after committing a felony, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 10 and punishable under Section 519 of the Criminal Code Laws of Ogun State Nigeria, 2006.”
However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial had been concluded and the case is slated for May 30, 2019 for ruling.
Source: PUNCH.
