The police have charged before an Ikeja magistrate’s court two men who allegedly assaulted Adebiyi Mohammed, a staff of what the prosecutor called in his charge sheet the “Power Holding Company of Nigeria” (PHCN).

The two men, Joseph Olawole, 60 and Ibrahim Adeyemo, 42, were accused of giving Mohammed the beating of his life on December 16, 2016 for allegedly daring to disconnect their light in the Agege area of Lagos, daily trust reports.

The prosecutor, Inspector George Nwosu, told the court that the two men confronted Muhammed that they had stopped paying their electricity bill because the “PHCN” had deprived them of regular power supply and had, therefore, not fulfilled its own side of the agreed contract.

The accused, the prosecutor added, further allegedly declared they would not pay up the outstanding bill or any other bill until PHCN did the needful.

But the victim was said to have refused to heed the advice of the elderly men and proceeded to disconnect the suspects’ light from the main power pole.

The prosecutor said some angry youths in the area consequently swooped down on the “PHCN” staff and seized his ladder as well as other tools.

“Other staff of the electricity company took to their heels. Minutes later they arrived the place with some policemen who effected the arrest of the two men,” witnesses said.

Nwosu said that the accused and others still at large conspired to assault Mohammed while performing his duty. “The accused had threatened to beat up the complainant if he would disconnect their power supply, claiming that their electricity supply had not been constant. When the complainant eventually disconnected it, the accused carried out their threat by organising some boys to beat up the complainant. In the process, they tore the complainant’s clothes and dispossessed him of his cell phone valued at N174,000,” he said.

Olawole, an engineer and Adeyemo, a photographer, however, pleaded not guilty before Magistrate A. A. Adesanya, who granted them bail in the sum of N100,000 each with two sureties in like sum. Adesanya adjourned the case to January 25, 2017 for mention, daily trust reports.