Justice Umar slaps guards, calls Nigerians ‘low personalities’

The only thing worse than the alleged attack Justice Danladi Umar, chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, executed on Clement Sargwak, 22, a security guard at Banex Plaza, Abuja, was the official statement from his office which called Nigerians “low personalities”. A video of the incident showed Umar slapping Sargwak, and had him on his knees. Eye witnesses said his aides joined in beating Sargwak before the incident was recorded.

Sargwak was brutalised for asking Umar to park elsewhere because his vehicle was obstructing the way. He would not have any of it. Who was Sargwak, a being way below him, to even talk to him? Umar, 49, claimed Sargwak was rude to him.

The punishment for rudeness was for Umar to take matters into his hands. Nigerians are asking for his prosecution. Some want him to resign for acting in manners beneath his office. Umar also claimed that he was attacked. He reported the matter to the police.

Ibraheem Al-Hassan, CCT’s head, Press & Public Relations, issued a statement lamenting that his boss was the victim. How did a simple parking incident result in slaps and kicks for the plaza’s security guard? Al-Hassan admitted to Leadership that, “The Chairman slapped him out of emotion”.

Al-Hassan, who was not at the scene blamed a mob for attacking his boss. The statement was so riddled with unbecoming disregard for the English Language – multiple spelling errors, grammatical infractions – that it is barely publishable.

According to Al-Hassan, “The policemen seen in the video cliff (sic) were not the Chairman’s police team, they were policemen operating around the plaza. As the few policemen in the complex were apparently overwhelmed by the mobs, consisting of Biafran boys throwing matches (sic) and shape object to his car, which led to deep cut and dislocation in one of his finger (sic), causing damage to his car, smashing his windscreen.

“The boy was rode (sic) in his approached(sic) and threaten (sic) to deal with Chairman if he refuse (sic) to leave the scene,” according to the statement. Please note that 22-year-old Sargwak is a “boy”.

Who are the Biafran boys as identified in an official statement from the CCT? Al-Hassan made the clarification. “At a point he attempted to leave the scene, these same miscreants, Biafran boy (sic) ordered for the closure of the gate thereby assaulting him before the arrival of police team from Maitama police station,” Al-Hassan’s statement read.

Is it official policy at the CCT that miscreants, who attack its Chairman, assuming they did, are called Biafran Boys? Or is it Al-Hassan’s personal position that is reflected on official statement? What does it mean for people to be called Biafran boys?

Al-Hassan with his Biafran Boys tag endangers the traders, who from different accounts, with their different backgrounds, could not stand Umar’s behaviour. Is Al-Hassan so determined to save his boss that he did not think that whatever he said mattered?

Further lamentations from Al-Hassan included that his boss did not go to the plaza with his official security team. What a sight it would have been to see how Umar would have acted with his men around him.

An inkling of how Umar felt about the incident can be gleaned from the conclusion of the CCT statement, “An incident like this when it happened (sic), sympathy usually goes to the low personalities”. Umar was dealing with people who could, from the CCT’s statement be considered sub-human because they were before the Chairman of the CCT, and were unaware that he was exempted from parking properly, or being spoken to by “low personalities”.

Al-Hassan and his boss have by that statement served notice that those who have business with CCT should ensure they are not “low personalities”.

If Umar gets away with the assault on the security guard, an ordinary Nigerian, he should not be allowed to rank Nigerians as “low personalities” because one of us told him the importance of parking well.

Finally…

AFTER 15 months of enjoying the efficiency of Nigerian medical services, President Muhammadu Buhari has had enough. He is back to London, his favourite hospital bed. The President has disappointed those who thought Covid-19 travel restrictions had weaned him of London. His previous visit was in January 2020.

Doctors are threatening a nation-wide industrial action. The strike is not related to the President shunning Nigerian hospitals.

Hopefully, kidnappers should also take a break since the President is not around to issue those stern warnings.

.Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues