Hmmm......Former World Boxing Cruiser-Weight champion, Bash Ali has alleged that security personnel attached to the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung, brutalised him for demanding to see the minister.
He said the security operatives hit his head with the rifle and also kicked him in the ribs causing him to lose consciousness.
The report claims, the 60-year-old boxer was taken to the medical personnel at the Federal Staff Clinic and subsequently transferred to the trauma unit of the Accident and Emergency department of the National Hospital, Abuja on Monday, February 13, following the incident.
The newspaper reports that Ali said he still felt pains in his ribs and on his skull where he was assaulted by Dalung’s police orderlies, and vowed to take legal action against the minister and the policemen.
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.
“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 the Minister 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 added, “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.”
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.”
Bash Ali who is currently hospitalized, had in a text message sent to newsmen, claimed that the Minister's security aides had denied him access to see the Minister who invited him over to his office.
According to Bash, himself and some of his other associates had gotten an invitation from the Minister to see him by 10 on Monday. They arrived the office and waited for three hours. Afterwards, his secretary came out to tell them they cannot see the Minister as he just resumed on that Monday and has not much time to attend to them. As they were talking, the Hungarian ambassador to Nigeria arrived the premises of the Ministry and was immediately ushered into the Minister's office. This infuriated Bash who immediately started to yell that he should be given more respect than the ambassador since he is a citizen. He alleged that the security aides to the Minister then attacked him and started beating him, one of them using his rifle to hit him. He said he collapsed immediately and was rushed to the Ministry's clinic and then transferred to the National Hospital Abuja.
However in a statement released today, the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, says Bash Ali's claims are untrue.
According to the SA Media, "Ali came to see the Minister and was told to wait at the Minister's waiting room with the 10 people who accompanied him. The Hungarian Ambassador to Nigeria, Prof. Gabor Ternak who had an earlier appointment for 2pm arrived a few minutes later and was ushered in by the Protocol officer. Bash Ali barricaded the entrance to the office of the Minister with the men who accompanied him as he questioned why the ambassador would be allowed to see the Minister while he, who came earlier was not given access. "
The uniformed security tried to persuade Bash and his men to leave the Minister's Secretary's office but to no avail. The boxer who was carrying a file and mobile phone carefully went to the Secretary's table to drop his valuables and then fell flat on his back across the doorway.
" Bash Ali was neither touched, shoved or manhandled by security operatives of the Minister. He feigned that he had been beaten up but we challenge him to produce physical evidence of assault, gun butt bumps, bruises, swelling or otherwise as being presented to the public. He has a record of such antics following his despair to defend a world boxing title at over 60. In 2013, he alleged that he was beaten up by security operatives of the then Minister of Youth and Sports Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi. In 2015, the WBF cruiser weight boxing champion was detained in Kuje prison following an altercation with the MD of a bank over funds for his title fight."Anibeze described Ali as an attention seeker who would stop at nothing to get funds for a purported World Guinness book of records fight.
" He needs to find alternative means of raising money for this World Guinness book of records title fight as government is finding it difficult to sustain programs on the sports calendar of sports federations at this time of recession let alone a title fight by a professional boxer. His allegation of assault by security personnel of the Minister is cheap blackmail and won't fly. Moreover, his forceful attempt to stop the Hungarian ambassador from gaining entry to the Minister's office is a national embarrassment by a legendary boxer like Bash and he should tender an unreserved apology for his public misbehavior"Anibeze said.The incident has already been reported to the police while other security agencies have been duly notified .
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