The Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Danladi Umar, has revealed the reason behind his physical assault on a security man attached to a plaza in Abuja.
According to Umar, the security guard was “rude” to him and made threats towards him.
The incident, which happened on Monday, was caught in a video that has since gone viral.
In the viral video, a visibly angry Umar did not hesitate to vent his spleen on the security man.
The CCT chairman did not just scold the guard, but also violently kicked him before he was restrained and led into his car by police officers.
But in a statement on Tuesday titled, ‘I was rather assaulted’ the media aide to Umar, Ibrahim Al-Hassan, said the security guard was rude and had threatened the tribunal chairman.
Narrating what transpired, Al-Hassan said the “altercations started over a parking lot which chairman met vacant, and it was directly opposite a shop where he wanted to make a purchase and to fix his phone”.
“When the young security guard sighted him, he ordered that the chairman should not park his car in that particular space.”
Al-Hassan said the security personnel could not provide a reasonable explanation why Umar could not park in the empty space.
He said although the tribunal chairman did not identify himself, “the boy was rude in his approach and threatened to deal with chairman if he refused to leave the scene.”
“Again, if the chairman had gone there to cause trouble or intimidate someone, as suggested, he would have gone there in his full official paraphernalia. But he went there alone with his younger brother,” the statement reads.
“The policemen seen in the video clip were not the chairman’s police team. They were policemen operating around the plaza, who at first instance intervened before the arrival of the police team from Maitama police station.”
Narrating further, he said a mob in the plaza started throwing machetes and sharp objects at Umar’s car, “which led to a deep cut and dislocation in one of his fingers, causing damage to his car and smashing his windscreen”.
“At the point he attempted to leave the scene, these same miscreants ordered for the closure of the gate, thereby assaulting him before the arrival of police team from Maitama police station,” Al-Hassan added.
