Moment Abuja Professor arrived courtroom with face covered, denies assault as orderly narrates ordeal (Video)
Inspector Teju Moses, the policewoman who was assaulted by Professor Zainab Duke Abiola on Tuesday has narrated her ordeal in the hands of the legal practitioner.
According to reports, officer Moses said her awful experience with Professor Abiola did not start the day of the assault.
READ ALSO: Human rights activist assaults female police orderly for refusing to do domestic chores (Videos)
She said, “I am Inspector Teju Moses, attached to Professor Dike Zainab around Area 11. On Tuesday, 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.”
Moses reported that Abiola claimed to know the IGP’s wife and informed her that she could treat her as she liked.
As they headed back to her house, the taunts persisted, according to Moses.
“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,” Moses narrated.
Officer Moses claimed that after Abiola reported her to her local police station, she received advice from them not to drive with the professor in the car.
“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,” Moses said.
Moses said she called out for assistance, and passersby rushed to her aid.
Sharing her side of the story, Professor Zainab Duke Abiola, denied ordering the assault of her orderly, Inspector Teju Moses.
The Abuja-based Professor in a statement released on her behalf by the Afro-European Lawyers League revealed that she is the Chief Legal Consultant to the Nigerian Police and has her office at the Force headquarters, Abuja.
Abiola alleged that she rejected her orderly, after discovering she was among the perpetrators of violence against innocent Nigerian citizens during the ENDSARS protest.
She said after the rejection, the police officer returned with a vengeful motive at night, banging on her gate with some dangerous weapons including a gun threatening to kill everybody in the compound.
The statement also alleged that the police orderly assaulted members of the Professor’s household.
A call was also made in the statement for the sack of the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, for allegedly violating the Professor’s human rights.
The statement read: “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 10 pm 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 of 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 the 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 IGP.”
However, preliminary investigations, according to the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, revealed that Abiola and her domestic staffer were guilty.
The IGP, Usman Baba Alkali, has reportedly ordered their “express prosecution.”
Prof. Zainab Duke Abiola & co were arraigned by the Chief magistrate court in Zone 6 Friday for the offences of criminal conspiracy, causing criminal hurt without provocation, an attempt to commit culpable homicide and an intentional insult to cause a breach of trust.
“The court ruled that the suspect be remanded in the Suleja Correctional facility while the case was adjourned to October 5th for the next hearing.”
Watch the video of Professor Abiola arriving a court Friday with face covered below:
