Delta State Police Command has launched investigation into Friday’s free-for-all between a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mrs. Mariam Ali and the state’s chairman of the ruling party, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi, in Asaba, the state’s capital.
We reliably learnt that the matter was being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the command. It was gathered that the police action was sequel to formal complaint of assault made against Nwaoboshi by the PDP’s BoT member and wife of a former national chairman of the party, Ahmadu Ali.
Ali was beaten up in a brawl with Nwaoboshi at the secretariat of the party in Asaba, on Friday.
Her two aides were also thoroughly beaten up by suspected aides of the PDP chairman.
The embattled aides also made statement to the police yesterday. The brawl followed controversy over sitting arrangement on the high table at a ceremony where official vehicles were presented to the chairmen of the party in the 25 local government councils of the state. Ali, who was pushed out of the seat purportedly reserved for the state’s deputy governor, Prof. Amos Utuama, had protested her shabby treatment by the leadership of the party in the state. The BoT member, who is also Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Governmental Affairs, protested that no seat was reserved for her on the high table despite her status as a national leader of the party.
Nwaoboshi was reported to have dismissed her argument. The ensuing altercation later degenerated into fisticuffs.
The outgoing Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, confirmed to us by phone yesterday that the police had commenced investigation into the incident.
The CP, however, lamented that Nwaoboshi declined invitation to make a
statement to the police, adding that he ignored invitation extended to him to face the CID on Saturday.
His words: “The matter is being investigated by the CID but we cannot find the chairman. The CID asked the chairman to report by 10am on Saturday but uptill now (4pm on Sunday) he has not come. We need to hear his own side of the story.
“We have heard from Mrs. Ali and we need to hear his own side of the story too.”
Meanwhile, Ali narrated her ordeal in a telephone interview with a newspaper on Sunday, debunking the claims of Nwaoboshi that she was the aggressor.
Ali, who played a pivotal role in the emergence of Nwaoboshi as chairman of the ruling party in the state, lamented that she “walked into a trap” set by some powerful people in the state with Nwaoboshi as “executor.”
She said, “There are two conspicuous vacant seats, obviously one was reserved for the governor and I sat on the other one near the speaker, Peter Onwusanya. The deputy governor was not expected at the ceremony because he was representing the governor at another function hosted by Azinge.
“But as I sat down, reading some of my text messages, it was being announced that whoever is sitting on a wrong chair to get up. The message later specifically asked me to get up, that was when I knew I had walked into a trap. One man later walked up to me that the chairman (Nwaoboshi) directed him to tell me to get up from the chair.”
“I asked the man to also tell the chairman to provide a chair for me as a BoT member. It was at that point that Nwaoboshi roared that my BoT is in Abuja and not in Asaba. At this point, Nwaoboshi and his boys confronted me and dragged me out of the chair.”
“My orderly had stepped out, but they also beat up two of my aides. They would have naked me if not that I wore a two-piece dress. Even the clothes were turned into shreds. They pushed me away from the podium and pushed me down from the stage.”
“I never expected this action from Nwaoboshi, whom I purchased nomination form for and I was instrumental to his election as chairman of the party.”
“With this condition, I rushed down to the Government House to report to the governor, but I could not see him because I was told that he was at a press briefing. I later found my way to the police command, where I reported the incident,” she added in an emotion laden tone.
Sources: www.abujareporter.blogspot.com
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