A man, who said his younger sister, Faith Nwaneri, was allegedly
assaulted by her Indian employer in Lagos, has cried out for justice.
The man, Ignatius Chukwuka, alleged that the Indian, Jay Keswani, one of
the Aswani Brothers, hit his sister with a briefcase on August 12 at
his Benefista Tower, Banana Island residence and she fainted.
Chukwuka said his sister was Personal Assistant (PA) to the Indian’s
wife and worked Fridays to Wednesday, with Thursdays being observed as
her day off.
He said Nwaneri was delayed at the gate that morning as she didn’t have
gate pass and had begged her way through in the last eight months, since
her employers were yet to provide one for her.
Chukwuka claimed that when she eventually got into the residence, the
man’s wife queried her for coming late and she explained that she was
delayed at the gate for lack of pass.
Angered by her explanation, the woman was said to have confronted her
husband, who then asked the young lady to give him the form he gave her
to fill to commence the process.
Afraid that the Indian will tear the form like he usually did and fire
her, Nwaneri, according to her brother, lied to him that she has
submitted it, adding that she was just waiting for him to give her the
money to process it.
“But when he insisted that he would follow my sister to the gate to
collect the form at all cost, my sister seeing the anger in him quickly
told him that she was still with the form and was waiting for him to
give her the money so she could submit it for processing.
“He got furious that she lied to him and hit her with his briefcase. My
sister fainted. At first, he thought it was a joke and hit her with his
leg but when he pulled her over and noticed pool of blood, he quickly
called his wife and they started pouring water on her head.
“At last, they revived her, left her at their apartment on the 19th
Floor and left for the office. After my sister regained consciousness,
she struggled through the back staircase to the basement, where a Good
Samaritan helped her to Falomo police station, from there she was
referred to Falomo Hospital, for treatment. There, my sister called me
to come over and I paid the bills, then I took her home.
“When I contacted Mr Jay Keswani, to find out what would make an elderly
man like him hit a lady, young enough to be his daughter and got her
injured, he (Keswani ) claimed it’s an accident.
“The police at Falomo tried to invite him, but were refused entry into
the island to serve him a letter of invitation. Security men at the
tower claimed they were acting on instructions not to collect the
invitation letter from the policeman who came to deliver the letter.
“The security men there at Benefista Tower also told us that they will
do everything to silent the case, as they claimed it’s their
responsibility to protect their clients as assigned. Since then, Keswani
has been walking freely with no action taken against him.
“All efforts to reach him to resolve this matter by our lawyer proved abortive, as he has bluntly refused to comply.
“My question is what will prompt Keswani to hit a woman like that and
claim it was an accident? If she had died in his apartment, perhaps,
Keswani would have covered up this case, and had my sister thrown into
the lagoon.
“Our lawyer wrote him for settlement and payment of compensation within
seven days which ended yesterday (Saturday), but till now, there’s no
response from him. It shows that this man has no regards for rule of law
and Nigerian citizens,” he said.