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Pix(above, L-R): Zainab Abiola, Rebecca Enechido and the police officer
Zainab Abiola, the remanded widow of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, who was detained in prison nearly two weeks ago for beating her police orderly black and blue, has been granted bail on stringent conditions. Magistrate Elizabeth Wonu of Wuse Zone 6 Chief Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, who granted her and her accomplice (Rebecca Enechido, her domestic staff) bail, ordered that they should report to the FCT Police Command on Mondays until November 1 for arraignment in competent court.
Chief MKO Abiola’s widow, Prof. Zainab Abiola, who is also a lawyer and human rights activist, was remanded in the Suleja Correctional Centre for allegedly beating the hell out of her female police orderly, named Teju Moses, over her 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.
A Wuse Zone 6 Chief Magistrates’ Court, Abuja which granted the defendants bails, directed them to provide two reasonable sureties with verifiable addresses, who must swear to affidavit of means.
The defendants are facing charges of criminal conspiracy, attempt to commit culpable homicide, causing grievous hurt without provocation, criminal intimidation and intentional assault with intent to cause breach of peace.
The offences, according to police prosecution, violated Section 277 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Section 229 of the Penal Code, laws of Northern part of the country.
The State Online reports that in a video clip that went viral on Tuesday, September 20, the officer was seen in uniform bleeding, seated on the floor and asking to be taken to the hospital for medical attention.
This prompted the Police Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, to issue a statement on Thursday, September 22, 2022, confirming 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./SHARE THIS