A Wuse Zone Six Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, has ordered the remand of Prof. Zainab Duke Abiola, one of the wives of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola, in a correctional centre, following her alleged involvement in grievous assault on police orderly, Inspector Teju Moses.
The police, on Friday, arraigned Abiola and her housemaid, Rebecca Enechido, for the alleged grievous assault of Moses at her residence in the Garki area of Abuja.
The Police also alleged that Mrs Abiola assaulted Moses for refusing to carry out domestic chores at her residence.
Mrs Abiola and her housemaid were later arrested after a video clip of the incident went viral on social media on Wednesday.
The duo were later arraigned for criminal conspiracy, attempt to commit culpable homicide, causing grievous hurt without provocation, criminal intimidation and intentional insult with intent to cause breach of peace.
But when the charge was read to Prof Abiola and her housemaid, they pleaded not guilty to the offence.
The prosecuting police lawyer, ASP Stanley Nwafoaku, told the court that Moses, who is attached to the Special Protection Unit in the Force Headquarters, Abuja, reported the matter at the Garki Police Station on September 20.
He said: “On September 19, Abiola ordered the complainant (Moses) to pick her bag and keep it in her car. She also ordered the orderly to open the gate during rain.
“Abiola also ordered the complainant to wash her car carpet and Moses politely turned down the order because she was already in her police uniform.
“The defendant (Mrs Abiola) started raining insults on the complainant and instructed the second defendant, Enechido, to do the same.
“When the complainant came later in the same day to pick up her belongings, the defendants attacked her with one Ugo, who is currently at large.
“The first defendant hit the complainant with a metal object on the head before she was rescued by a passerby.”
According to the police, the offense is contrary to sections 97, 229,247,397 and 399 of the Penal Code.
But the lawyer to Mrs Abiola, Mr. Hassan Yusuf, urged the court to grant his client bail in the most liberal terms, citing section 36 (5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In her short ruling, Magistrate Elizabeth Wonu refused the bail application and ordered that Mrs Abiola and the housemaid, should be remanded at the Suleja Correctional Centre.
The magistrate later adjourned the matter till October 5 for further hearing.
Meanwhile, Mrs Abiola, who is a human rights activist and a lawyer, has denied assaulting the police officer.
According to a statement issued by the Afro-European Lawyers League on her behalf, the group said that the allegations against her were not true.
The statement reads in part, “Our attention has been drawn to a fallacious , malicious defamatory publication against our respected Alumnus of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), Prof 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 Prof 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 Nigeria 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 Prof 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. 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 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 the same in the print and electronic media in this nascent democratic dispensation.”
