champion Bash Ali has accused
policemen attached to the Minister of
Sports, Solomon Dalung, of brutalising
him for demanding an appointment with
the minister.
According to him, the security
operatives hit his head with the rifle
and also kicked him in the ribs
causing him to lose consciousness,
The Punch reports.
He added that three members of his
team witnessed the assault.
It was gathered that the 60-year-old
was attended to by medical personnel
at the Federal Staff Clinic and
subsequently transferred to the
trauma unit of Accident and
Emergency department of the
National Hospital, Abuja on Monday,
February 13, following the incident at
the minister’s office.
Speaking in an interview with
Northern City News and cited on The
Punch, Ali said that he still felt pains
in his ribs and on his skull where he
was assaulted by Dalung’s police
orderlies.
He vowed to take legal action against
the minister and the policemen.
According to him, he was talking to
his lawyers about the next line of
action on the alleged assault.
He said: “Last Friday, the Perm Sec told
us the minister said we should come on
Monday. We were excited and I and some
members of the LOC went to the ministry.
We got there and waited almost three
hours. Later they now told us he said we
should come back again, that he just
resumed.
“While we were discussing this, the
Hungarian ambassador walked in and I
asked the minister’s personal assistant,
‘How can this man just walk in to see the
minister and in our own country, we
couldn’t see him’ and that was how his
police aides started pushing me; one hit the
back of my head with his rifle and my back
and I just collapsed, another hit my waist.
“They dragged me from the entrance to the
minister’s office and put me outside. It was
there they now called the doctor to come
and attend to me. I was first taken to the
ministry’s clinic and from there, I was
brought to the accident and emergency
ward at the National Hospital here.”
Ali also accused Dalung of trying to
frustrate the Guinness World Record
boxing championship he was
organising, adding that Dalung had
been plotting to cut a deal for himself
with the sponsors-the Bank of
Industry and NEXIM Bank.
He said: “It is obvious the minister was
trying to cut a deal for himself, otherwise,
he would not have arranged a private
meeting with the bank without the principal
actor.”
But in a swift response, the Director of
Press and Public Relations, Ministry of
Sports, Tolu Makinde, said Ali was
stopped from molesting the
ambassador and alleged that the
boxer blocked him from entering the
minister’s office.
He said: “Bash Ali physically obstructed
them and said they would not enter the
minister’s office and all entreaties to him to
give way failed, so the security had to
politely take him away to allow the
ambassador to enter; he just enacted a
melodrama and feigned slumping. We had
no alternative but to ask the medical
personnel at the Federal Staff Clinic to
conduct routine checks on him.
“They checked his blood pressure, pulse,
and it was okay. He said he would not
stand up, so they took him to their clinic
for observation and rest. That was what
happened. He wasn’t manhandled, but they
(policemen) had to ensure he gave the right
of way to the ambassador. You know what
would happen if the ambassador was
molested, two or three security officers
simply removed him.”
Bashi Alli, who holds cruiser-weight
title of World Boxing Federation
(WBF) will face Rick Camlin, the
champion of International Boxing
Union (IBU) at a yet to be fixed date in
Nigeria.
The Nigerian boxing legend had
equally being manhandled by
policemen after attempting to see the
former minister of Sports, Bolaji
Abdullahi in Abuja on Thursday June
6, 2013.
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