BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
A 45-year-old engineer, Celestine Nwafor, has recounted how he lost one of his eyes during a clash with a commercial bus driver, Christopher Umoke, at an NNPC mega filling station in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, while struggling to buy fuel.
Nwafor, in his account before a state high court sitting in Abakaliki, alleged that Umoke hit his left eye with a car key in a fight that broke out between them during fuel scarcity on December 21, 2017.
The plaintiff, who dragged Umoke before the court, said he could no longer see with his left eye since the alleged attack.
The Abakaliki-based engineer disclosed that he had spent more than five hours on queue waiting for his turn to buy fuel on the fateful day when Umoke forcefully drove into the queue and scratched his car.
He said, “As the queue began to move, the commercial bus driver, from nowhere, drove his vehicle into the queue forcefully and scratched my car in the process. When I walked up to him, he gave me a big blow on my left eye which caused me bleeding and so much pain.”
The Point gathered that Nwafor was rushed to Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, where he received treatment for three days before an optometrist on duty, Edegbe Felix, confirmed that his cornea had ruptured resulting in lack of refraction to light and permanent loss of vision.
Delivering judgement in the five-year-suit, Justice Chinyere Ken-Ezeh said the police prosecution failed to prove the case of assault and inflicting of grievous harm against Umoke since 2017.
Ken-Ezeh, therefore, discharged and acquitted Umoke noting that from her findings, the defendant did not intentionally hit the complainant’s eye but it was on self defence during a brawl that ensued between the two.
She stated that the defendant did not hit the complainant’s eye with his car key as alleged but his eye glasses was responsible for rupturing the eye during the fight.
The court held that from its findings, Nwafor slapped Umoke first and that the latter was remorseful and willingly took the complainant to the hospital, took care of his medical bills and had pleaded for out-of-court settlement.
The judge, therefore, discharged and acquitted Umoke of the charges of assault and grievous bodily harm levelled against him.
