There was confusion at the lobby of the National Assembly
in Abuja on Friday as a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Ibrahim
Olaifa, and his aides manhandled an official of the Federal Road Safety Corps.
The offence of the FRSC official, Mr.
Mediel Jerry, was that he reportedly clamped Olaifa’s car for parking at an
unauthorised area in the complex.
The car, a 2011 Honda Accord marked
MHR 100, was parked at the entrance to the lobby linking the Senate and House
chambers.
The security division of NASS had
disallowed parking in front of the lobby, a new security measure taken in the
wake of recent threats in the country.
Findings indicated that security
officials and traffic control personnel at the NASS were under an instruction
to clamp any vehicle that breached the rule.
The vehicles of several lawmakers and
top officials of the NASS are frequently clamped for disregarding the rule.
Olaifa is a member of the Accord Party representing Oluyole Federal Constituency.
His political aides immediately
crowded the FRSC official, claiming that there was no intention to park the car
in the security area.
His aides punched and shoved Jerry
mercilessly in front of the lobby in the presence of the lawmaker.
When the beating became too much for
the FRSC official, he ran into the lobby, seeking help from policemen and other
security officials.
Olaifa’s aides ran after the
official, shouting, “Thief, thief, thief.”
The aides caught up with Jerry,
punched him the more and got some buttons removed from his uniform.
They were about to drag him out of
the lobby, insisting he must unlock the clamp when a plainclothes female police
officer came to his rescue.
“Stop, stop,” she ordered the aides.
It was at this point that Olaifa
started telling his aides to stop the beating.
The lawmaker pointed fingers at the
official, whose face had swollen up, demanding explanations for clamping his
car.
Some members of the FRSC, who were
alerted to the development, rushed to the lobby and took Jerry to the police
unit at the National Assembly to lodge a complaint.
The same aides also rained abuses on
journalists for daring to come to the scene to find out what happened.
One of the aides, a heavily built
lady, tried to assault the reporters.
Olaifa threatened court action when
his views were sought over the incident.
“Go and publish whatever you like; I
will go to court and you will be hearing from my lawyer if it is not the truth.
“I know Punch and I have been in
relationship for a very long time.
“Write whatever you want to write,”
he added.
The shouting at the lobby caused
confusion as many staff members and security personnel rushed to the place,
thinking that there was a major security scare.
When contacted, the Chairman of the
House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, blamed the
beating on the political aides and not Olaifa.
Dishonourable Olaifa must be shown how to work in a civilised environment. If they can't respect rules at NASS how much more Nigerians. If I were Jerry I would engage human rights lawyer and seek redress with support of FRSC so that tomorrow, no lawmaker would take officials be it police or FRSC for granted and even House of Reps should sanction him for not calling his jobless aides to order to restore discipline. Its not enough for Zakari to blame his aides, but seeing what was unveiling what did he do+open apology to Jerry and FRSC. Chidoka where are u?
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