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- Pix(above): IGP Usman Alkali Baba and Zainab-Duke Abiola
Prof. Zainab-Duke Abiola, widow of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, has dragged the Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba and three others to court over defamation of her character, with demand of N100.2bn cumulative damages.
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Other defendants in the suit filed before the Federal High Court Abuja, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/2070 are the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Engr. Ibrahim described as IGP Alkali’s son as well as her former orderly, Insp. Teju Moses.
Mrs. Abiola stated that the defendants jointly made false and defamatory publications against her in which they claimed, among others, that she assaulted Moses, who was then her police orderly.
The plaintiff averred that, following the damaging effect of the alleged false and defamatory publications made by the defendants against her, she has suffered and is still suffering a great deal.
She claimed, in court documents, that she was “framed up by one Engr. Ibrahim, who happens to be the adopted son of the IG, in a bid to cover up some monumental bribery and corruption in the Nigeria Police, perpetrated by the said son of the IG.”
Mrs. Abiola stated that the defendants caused her to be abducted in a gestapo style from her Abuja home “during unholy hours of the night with a night gown and subjected to torture.”
The plaintiff added that the manner she was treated by the defendants was not only derogatory and amounted to abrogation of her rights and esteemed personality, it also caused her great pain and suffering.
She faulted the police for not investigating claims of assault of her orderly before parading her as a criminal before newsmen.
Mrs. Abiola, who said she was engaged by the NPF as its Chief Legal Consultant (CLC), stated that “the malicious intention of the defendants was to defame and blackmail plaintiff into silence and not spill the beans on the massive corruption going on under IG Usman Alkali.”
She accused the IGP of not being truthful in his press statement when he “published grievous, malicious falsehood” when he stated that “Professor Zainab has no acquaintance with the police in any form.”
The plaintiff, who claimed to have an office in Louis Edet House, Police Headquarters by virtue of her position as the CLC, Chief Legal Consultant, to the NPF, additionally, wants the court to order the defendants to tender public apology to her, which must be published in electronic, print and social media.
She also wants the court to direct the defendants to pay her N100billion as damages for defamation, harassment, trauma, humiliation and public embarrassment she suffered; and N100million as general damages, in addition to another N100m cost of litigation.
The State Online earlier reports that Zainab Abiola, widow of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, MKO Abiola, has been remanded in the Suleja Correctional Centre for allegedly beating the hell out of her female police orderly, named Insp. Teju Moses, over her alleged refusal to do house chores for her.
Zainab’s journey to the correctional centre began when she allegedly ordered her housemaid, Rebecca Enechido and a male aide now at large, to beat the police officer attached to her for refusing to do some domestic chores she assigned to her.
In a video clip that went viral on a Wednesday, the officer was seen in uniform bleeding, seated on the floor and asking to be taken to the hospital for medical attention.
The State Online further reported that the Police Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, in a statement on Thursday, September 22, 2022, confirmed the arrest of Zainab, who is also a professor, a lawyer and human rights activist, alongside her housemaid, Rebecca Enechido, through whom the widow allegedly perpetrated the act.
According to the statement, the human rights activist perpetrated the act on Tuesday, 20th September, 2022, at her residence in Garki, Abuja, with the help of one Rebecca Enechido and a male suspect currently at large.
Adejobi’s statement said: “The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, psc (+), NPM, FDC, has strongly condemned the grievous assault of a female Police Officer, Inspector Teju Moses, by her principal who is a legal practitioner and human rights activist, Prof. Zainab Duke Abiola and her domestic staff comprising the housemaid, one Rebecca Enechido and a male suspect currently at large.
“Zainab Duke, an Mbaise-born activist, grievously assaulted her orderly in the company of some accomplices on Tuesday, 20th September, 2022, at her residence in Garki, Abuja, due to the refusal of the orderly to breach professional ethics by carrying out menial and domestic chores at her house,” adding that “the police later arraigned Mrs. Duke-Abiola and her domestic worker, Rebecca Enechido, before a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Wuse District.”
But on Friday, September 23, 2022, the widow was denied bail while the matter was adjourned till October 5, 2022.
Earlier, Abiola had denied assaulting the officer, saying it was strange that the IGP would forcefully 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.”
With her Wednesday bail and subsequent determination to arraign her in court of competent jurisdiction, it is not yet uhuru for the widow of the highly revered MKO, whom the Afro-European Lawyers League has been on the frontline to secure her prompt release and declare innocent of the entire brouhaha, The State Online further reported./SHARE THIS