Nampula: PRM agents beat up citizen and fracture his leg in Waresta market – Ikweli

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Nampula: PRM agents beat up citizen and fracture his leg in Waresta market – Ikweli

2:10 CAT | 09 Mar 2021

Photo Ikweli

A 37-year-old trader in the Waresta wholesale market in Nampula says agents of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) beat him to the point of seriously injuring his right leg.

The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon (07-03), when victim Jotom Inácio came under scrutiny for failing to comply with Covid-19 prevention measures, including the use of a face mask and failing to close his stall sufficiently quickly.

No-one on the scene agreed to talk openly about the case, for fear of being sanctioned by market management.

“The young man was beaten here in the restaurant because he was not using the mask correctly. The police found him closing up his stall to go home. The problem was that they forced him to close the stall so quickly and then started to beat him with ‘chambocos’ [batons],”one vendor who witnessed the assault said.

After beating him savagely, the agents abandoned their victim, writhing in pain. His colleagues took him to Nampula Central Hospital, where the Orthopaedics section attended to him.

The medical report indicates that the citizen had a fractured right leg, which could jeopardise his movement in the future. At the time of publishing, he was recovering at home in Nampula’s Carrupeia neighbourhood.

“I received a call yesterday from one of his friends at the market, saying that my husband was lying there unable to walk, having been beaten by the police. They say he took a long time to close up his stall and was not wearing his mask properly. When I arrived he had been taken to the hospital, with the help of friends,” the beaten man’s wife, Matilde António, said.

Asked by Ikweli, head of Waresta market Inácio Pilopilo said he did not have detailed information about what happened, and so could not adequately explain.

According to Pilopilo, the citizen’s family had not reported the police beating to the market authorities responsible for the sellers of the market, adding that the man was drunk at the time and disobeyed police orders.

But, according to what Ikweli learned at the scene, Pilopilo has been threatening people not to talk about the case.

Contrary to the information provided by the head of the market and his list of Municipal Police who claim that the citizen was under the influence of alcohol, wife Matilde António says that this is blatant lie the authorities are using to justify their conduct, and that her husband has never consumed alcoholic beverages in his life.

“It was written that he had consumed alcoholic beverages and was making trouble, while in fact my husband does not drink. What’s more, when they beat him he lost what he had at that time. That’s sad. Now I am sick with worry because I have no way of supporting my children. He is the father of five children and […] they beat him and abandoned him,” she complained.

Meanwhile, the PRM in Nampula reacts …

“It is already stated in PRM information that the police have been working to discourage and raise awareness of the importance of avoiding crowds of people, because of the Covid-19 situation. The police have continued and are carrying out these activities in several place that, at times, come into disagreement (sic) with the presidential decree establishing the situation of public calamity,” said Zacarias Nacute, spokesman for the PRM Provincial Command in Nampula, when questioned by Ikweli regarding the incident.

The Nampula PRM spokesman goes on to affirm that: “In these actions by the Police of the Republic of Mozambique, there are times when the population disobeys the orders of the authorities, remaining in places, even retaliating against the police, and, having no alternative, the police end up using force to disperse these people and ensure that there is no situation of destabilisation of order, and that the measures in the situation of public calamity decree are observed”.

By Esmeraldo Boquisse

Source: Jornal Ikweli