The Abuja mob that attacked me chanted secessionist slogans, says CCT chairman

Danladi Umar, chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), says he was attacked in Abuja by a mob that was “chanting secessionist and sectional slogan.”

Umar told PRNigeria that the assault saga involving him at a popular plaza in the nation’s capital has left him traumatised and disappointed.

The CCT chairman was caught on video hitting a security man who had told him his vehicle was parked in the wrong space at a popular plaza in Abuja.

In his defence, Ibraheem Al-Hassan, CCT spokesperson, said the guard was rude and that some “Biafran boys” also harassed his boss.

He also said it was Umar that asked him to use “Biafran boys” to describe the mob — a description which Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, said could land the CCT chairman in jail.

In an interview with PRNigeria, Umar insisted that those who confronted and assaulted him at the plaza were secessionists.

He said: “As part of my routine activities outside the office and official duties, like any regular Nigerian, I always drive myself and move around freely to places of worship, markets and gyms, among others, without any paraphernalia of office.

“I enjoy such freedom being a believer that one day one would leave whatever office one occupies and returning to living the normal life.

“Therefore, when I was accosted by the plaza guard in a very rude manner on arriving there, I had maintained my accustomed decorum before I was drawn into an unnecessary altercation and subsequently assaulted, with this degenerating into an attack and injury by a mob that was chanting secessionist and sectional slogans.”

He further said the viral video of the incident did not capture where he was being assaulted.

He said he has been “traumatised after being bruised and treated in the hospital” and regrets being drawn into “responding to the situation.”

“This makes me both upset at being cast in a distorted and unfortunate light, while I also have cause to feel deep pains for subsequent response and controversies,” the CCT chairman added.

“All said, with an apology tendered to me by one of the suspected aggressors, I believe that the entire incident was avoidable, just as I feel highly disappointed that my action in the public glare in a very brief moment has been misconstrued in the narrative floating across social media.”