Clement Sagwak, the security guard assaulted by the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Danladi Umar, has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), asking for a probe into the March 29 incident. Mr Sagwak, in an April 9 petition signed by his lawyer, Samuel Ihensekhien, accused the CCT chairman of abuse of power, assault, torture, and ‘xenophobia’.
Mr Umar was caught on camera physically assaulting Mr Sargwak, at Banex Plaza, Wuse 2, Abuja, on March 29. Mr Umar, who presides over the trial of public officers accused of breach of code of conduct, was seen in the five-minute viral video clip, slapping and kicking the security guard following an altercation that ensued between them over a parking space on the premises of the plaza.
Mr Sargwak, with a bruised lip, later revealed that he was attacked by the CCT chair after he approached him over wrong parking on the plaza premises.
A phone repairer, Peter Onyiuke, with an outlet at the plaza, was also detained for one week allegedly on Mr Umar’s instruction, following a quarrel they had on the sideline of the scene created by CCT chairman’s attack on the plaza’s security guard.
In the petition dated April 9, 2021, and addressed to the Secretary of the NHRC, Anthony Ojukwu, Mr Sargwak urged the commission to investigate the assault he suffered in the hands of Mr Umar and his driver, and the subsequent slur campaign the CCT launched against him and tenants of the plaza after the incident.
In a statement filled with blunders, the CCT press and media unit, accused Mr Sargwak of being rude in his encounter with Mr Umar. The unit also alleged that CCT chairman was mobbed by ‘Biafran boys’, a characterisation that was widely condemned as a slur on an ethnic group.
Mr Sargwark said, through his lawyer, thar the slur in the statement after he was attacked by the CCT chairman violated section 26 of the Cybercrime Probation and other Offences Act, 2015.
The petition reads, in part, “As if that was not enough, that the said Umar Danladi through his press office issued a press statement at Code of Conduct Tribunal wherein he complained in defence of his atrocious act of Umar Danladi said that the tenant of Banex Plaza and the Clement Sagwak attacked him and some tenants of Banex Plaza who witnessed the ugly incident and nominal complainant/our client’s assault are Biafra boys, wherein same publication is contrary to 26 of Cybercrimes Prohibitions and Other Offences Act 2015, as same act as Umar Danladi and his press officer constitute use of racist terms and the aftermath distribution of the same through (an) electronic medium by all persons, constitute a distribution of xenophobic material in this regard.
“Whereof the act of Umar Danladi and all persons associated with him is contrary to the provisions and sections under the Penal Code Act section 26 of Cybercrimes Prohibition and other Offences Act 2015.”
The petitioner also accused both Mr Umar and officers of the F.C.T police command of “intimidating and threatening tenants and all eyewitnesses in an attempt to cover up Mr Umar’s dirty tracks of the March 29 event.”
“That the F.C.T Police Command officers are busy inviting and threatening to arrest banex plaza tenants and all those that (who) witness(ed) the unruly behaviour of Umar Danladi to cover up Umar Danladi criminal and dirty tracks.
“That the IPO of the Police Command has again invited a colleague of Clement Sargwak who is one of the eyewitnesses to the event on Monday, March 29, 2021.
“That the Umar Danladi is bent on intimidating everyone around Clement Sagwak who has any useful information to indict our client,” the petition partly reads.
Efforts to reach the F.C.T police spokesperson, Mariam Yusuf, were unsuccessful. She did not respond to calls and text messages sent to her known phone number.