Magistrate’s court sitting in Wuse, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, on Friday sent Professor Zainab Duke Abiola to Suleja Prison over alleged assault on her Police Orderly, Inspector Teju Moses, on the ground that the police woman refused to be used as house help.
Professor Zainab was arraigned alongside her domestic aide, Rebecca Enechido after a video clip that went viral on Wednesday, in which Teju Moses was seen seated on the floor and asking to be taken to the hospital for medical attention while bleeding.
The Nigeria Police Force accused Abiola, a legal practitioner and human rights activist, of attempt to commit culpable homicide, intentional insult to cause a breach of trust, Criminal conspiracy, Causing criminal and hurt without provocation.
The Magistrate Court denied Professor Duke Zainab bail while the matter was adjourned till October 5, 2022.
The magistrate ordered that she should be remanded in Suleja Prison pending the adjourned date.
The victim, Teju Moses in a reported statements, said as presented below:
I am Inspector Teju Moses, attached to Professor Duke Zainab around Area 11. Yesterday, after I helped her take her things to the car, she told me to open the gate. But I told her that I could not open the gate because it was raining and I was in uniform.
She told me to go assist a staff to open the gate but I repeated the fact that I was in uniform and it was raining. She then said that why would I answer her that way, that it was a query, in her words. So, I kept quiet.
When we got to the court, she told me to take all the papers handed to me and ensure I signed them. I told her that I could not sign the papers because I didn’t know what they contained. She insisted that her previous police orderlies did what she asked without questioning her. She then started to insult me on the court premises and said that she could call the Inspector General of Police to get her a new orderly.
The next morning, she told me to bring all the carpets in the car to clean them. I explained to her that I could not do so because I was in uniform. She asked why I was so stubborn. ‘I looked at your face and you looked gentle,’ she said to me. She continued to say that she would deal with me. ‘I have dealt with high-ranking officers. I can remove your uniform at any time. I mark your exams,’ she said. She also said that my dirty boots stained her car and went on with the insults.
I went to her house to get my bag when I met her at the gate. She was holding a piece of iron and said that she was going to make sure I was stripped of my uniform. ‘You this witch, you think you are stubborn?’ She said. She did not allow me to enter the house or retrieve my bag. Instead, she instructed her maid and one other male staffer to beat me up. She threatened the maid that she was going to hit her if the maid failed to hit me. They chased me around and hit me with that metal bar that looked like a crowbar.
Meanwhile, Professor Duke Zainab Abiola in a statement issued on her behalf by the Afro-European Lawyers League, said:
“Our attention has been drawn to a fallacious malicious defamatory publication against our respected Alumnus of the National Institute of Policy and Security Studies, NIPPS, Professor Zainab Duke Mni, alleging assault on one of her police Orderlies.
We categorically state that this is NOT true and Nothing could be further from the truth. For the records our respected revered Professor Zainab has Never assaulted anybody anywhere at any time. It is not in her character.
The facts are: 1. That on the 20th of April 2022, the IGP approved the revalidation and deployment of police Orderlies to our leader based on the fact that she is the Chief Legal Consultant to the Nigerian Police and has her office at the Force headquarters, Abuja.
2. That the police consequently assigned a female police officer who was among the perpetrators of Violence against innocent Nigerian Citizens during the ENDSARS imbroglio.
3. That consequent upon discovery of her Orderly’s involvement in police brutality against Nigerians that Professor Zainab rejected the posting of a brutal officer and returned the said Orderly back to Force Headquarters to her bosses and told her Bye bye on the 19th of September.
4. That to our surprise around 10pm, the former Orderly returned with a Vengeance, banging on our gates with some dangerous weapons including a gun threatening to kill everybody in the compound and that the police Orderly beat up family members in the Professor’s household.
5. That as can be seen in the video a crowd soon gathered and there was street brawling crowd fighting and loss of properties.
6. That it is very strange that the IGP will forcefully, brutally and illegally violate the fundamental Rights and liberties of a distinguished law- abiding citizen and proceed to forcefully take her pictures and maliciously publish same in the print and electronic media in this nascent democratic dispensation.
We hereby call on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack the Inspector General of Police and bring him to book to face the consequences of this gross violation of our constitution as Alkali Baba Usman is NOT a fit and proper person to hold the office of IOP.
