21st February, 2012
Chairman of Esan West Local Government Transition Committee in Edo State, Mrs. Stella Okoro and Ehikioya Odiase, Coordinator of the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) in the area are currently at daggers drawn over claims by the latter that he was assaulted in the course of carrying out his duties.
Ehikioya had through his counsel, Barrister Johnson Erewele, petitioned the Police Area Commander in Irrua, the administrative headquarters of the council, calling for the arrest and prosecution of the chairman for assault.
The WAI Coordinator had alleged in the petition that on February 1, 2012, he and his subordinates were on duty at Ekpoma main market roundabout “when Mrs. Stella Okoro moved towards him with her entourage and accused him of collecting N3,000 from someone sometime last year and ordered me to quit my duty post.”
He added that before he reacted to the accusation in his defence, “Mrs. Okoro gave him three heavy slaps on his left cheek.”
Reacting to the allegation in a telephone interview with P.M.NEWS, Mrs. Okoro denied it all. She said that she never raised a finger against the petitioner whom she said is fond of extorting money from market women in the locality.
She disclosed that she has for a long while been receiving petitions/complaints from traders in the area about the unbecoming attitude of the WAI Coordinator.
She added that it got to a stage she had to placate the aggrieved traders and promised to call Ehikioya to order.
Mrs. Okoro said that she had a peace meeting with him and appealed to him to change his modus operandi considering that the complaints against him were becoming too much.
However, she alleged that he would not budge as he kept on constituting a threat to the peace and security of the locality because of his greed.
Meanwhile, in a telephone chat with P.M.NEWS, Barrister Erewele, counsel to Ehikioya, disclosed that he is preparing his briefs in readiness for a legal battle with Mrs. Okoro.
—Isaac Olamikan, Benin