TELL Magazine

Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Usman Alkali Baba, has directed the express prosecution of a legal practitioner and human rights activist, Prof. Zainab Duke Abiola, for the brutalisation of her police orderly, Teju Moses, a police inspector.

To be arraigned along with her are her domestic staff comprising the house maid, one Rebecca Enechido, and a male suspect currently at large, who allegedly carried out the assault.

Recall that a video of the bleeding police officer, sitting on the ground and surrounded by sympathisers, had gone viral on social media, eliciting reaction by the police authorities.

In a press release on Thursday signed by Olumuyiwa Adejobi, chief superintendent of police, CSP, Force Public Relations Officer, the IGP strongly condemned the grievous assault of the police inspector by her principal.

According to Adejobi, “Zainab Duke, an Mbaise-born activist, grievously assaulted her orderly in 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”.

The FPPRO said preliminary investigation showed “an overwhelming evidence of culpability” by the arrested suspects who are currently in Police custody, adding that the IGP has equally tasked the investigative team to ensure that the fleeing suspect is arrested and made to face the wrath of the law.

He disclosed that the IG has similarly ordered the withdrawal of all Police personnel attached to the Professor, and “expressed consternation at the fact that an individual who claims to be an advocate for Human Rights, could stoop so low to violate the rights of another individual, a police officer, tasked with ensuring her protection”.

Denying the professor’s touted closeness to the wife of the IGP, Adejobi said “It is pertinent to clarify that the suspect, Prof. Zainab, who name-drops the IGP, his family members, and other officers in the top hierarchy of the Force, has no acquaintance with the Police in any form as erroneously peddled on social media.