Caution was thrown to the wind in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Thursday, as some policemen and officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) engaged in a free-for-all.
The show of shame happened at the Customary Court, Quarry Road, Abeokuta.
One of the NSCDC officers was thoroughly beaten, had his uniform torn and was whisked away by policemen.
Freedom Online learned that the crisis started when the NSCDC officers tried to prevent the policemen from enforcing a judgement of the court which declared that Speaker of the House of Assembly, Suraj Adekunbi, must be in custody of his daughter, Samiat.
Adekunbi’s estranged lover, Iyabo Adedotun, who is an official of NSCDC, had sued the Speaker for neglecting her and the child.
She also alleged that the Speaker was after her life.
Adedotun also claimed that the Speaker was not meeting up to his responsibilities on Samiat.
When the court sat on Thursday, the three-man panel granted the Speaker’s prayers and ordered that the child be returned to his custody.
The court also set aside their relationship, which had lasted for 10 years, while ruling that all parties to the case should be free to marry any person of his or her choice, henceforth.
After the judgement, Adedotun tried to prevent the court officials from handing over Samiat to the Speaker’s family members.
She alleged that the court officials were compromised by the Speaker, hence the favourable judgement given to him.
After Adekunbi left the scene, crisis started.
Adedotun and another NSCDC officials, who accompanied her to the court, attempted to stop the Speaker’s family members from taking Samiat away.
When they were resisted, she called for reinforcement from NSCDC office.
Sending trouble, the few policemen around also called from reinforcement from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The policemen and the NSCDC officials stormed the court, almost at the same time.
The show of strength led to pandemonium as court officials ran helter skelter.
One of the NSCDC officials was not lucky as he was beaten thoroughly for trying to obstruct execution of the court judgement.
Several gunshots were fired to scare away the crowd that surged to the court premises.
The NSCDC official was eventually whisked away, amid serious beating.
Reacting to the incident, the Special Assistant on Media to the Speaker, Waheed Akinola, absolved his boss of any blame, adding that the police operatives involved were not the ones attached to the Speaker nor the House of Assembly.
Akinola said that the Speaker had left the scene long before the ugly development.
He said in a statement: “Rt. Hon. Suraju Ishola Adekunbi was in court today over the contentious legal issue over the custody of his daughter, Samiat Adekunbi, and dissolution of the purported marriage between the Speaker (defendant) and Ms Iyabo Adedotun (plaintiff).
“The court granted the relief of Iyabo to dissolve the marriage and transfer the custody of the child to Mr Speaker in line with the law. It was the second ruling that the plaintiff quarrelled with, throwing caution to the wind in the process. She personally insulted and even manhandled the Speaker right inside the court to the chagrin of everyone.
“To worsen the situation, she brought with her an NSCDC official, who we later learnt, was never posted there nor got an official approval to cover the proceedings. As if that was not enough, the officer flouted the court order on the submission of handsets and secretly recorded the proceedings without the permission of the court until he was caught.
“It was on that strength that the court ordered his arrest by security operatives. He, of course, resisted arrest and that led to the avoidable but highly preventable show of shame that ensued today.
“How could anybody have ascribed this to the Speaker? The police came on the prompting of the court and I make bold to say here that those operatives were not the ones attached to the Speaker nor OGHA as being speculated.”
