Boy gets Beaten to Death By Officials of Enugu State Waste Management Agency

Tension mounted in Enugu, yesterday, following an alleged gruesome murder of a 17‑year‑old secondary school student by enforcement team of the Enugu State Waste Management Authority, ESWAMA, for allegedly using unauthorized bag to dispose refuse.

The mother of the deceased, Mrs Ede David, told Vanguard that her son, Callistus Chidiebere Ede, met his untimely death when she asked him to dispose refuse already bagged with grains bag on Monday morning.
According to her:

“I was preparing to go to market to sell my food that morning, so he left with the waste in our wheel‑barrow for disposal. While I was going out, I heard noise from the area where my son went to dispose refuse, I then asked my sister to take my stuff to the market while I proceeded to the dump site to know why my son had not returned. When I got to the dump site five hefty men were beating him. I approached them and asked why they were beating him but none of them uttered a word.”  

How he was killed
The woman who spoke amidst sobs, said her son told her that the ESWAMA officials asked him to enter their vehicle and he refused because he committed no wrong and one of the officials told her that they were beating him because he refused arrest for disposing refuse with another bag other than ESWAMA bag.
She said:

“I pleaded with them to allow him to go because he was writing his Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, SSSCE, instead they should arrest me since he was underaged and I was the one that sent him on the mission, but they refused.”

Mrs Edeh further narrated that after all effort to dissuade them from arresting him failed, she asked her son to go with them why she promised to come for him and he boarded their vehicle.
Continuing, Mrs Ede said:

“I went back to the house and got some money and while going to ESWAMA office, I saw somebody lying on the road along Abakpa timber market but on getting closer I saw that the person was my son.
When I stopped I raised alarm and people came out in their numbers and rushed him to a nearby private hospital,  where he was confirmed dead at about 3:30pm Monday.”

When Vanguard visited ESWAMA office yesterday, the gate to the premises was locked as hundreds of people besieged the gate protesting the gruesome murder of the school boy. The Managing Director of ESWAMA, Mr. Dom Okonkwo, who was contacted on phone, declined comment.
 The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, also confirmed the killing in a statement, yesterday. He said:

“We have received information on the alleged murder of a 17 year‑old boy by yet to be identified persons and investigations into the incident have commenced.”