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Boxing champion, Bash Ali, has accused policemen attached to the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, of brutalising him for demanding an appointment with the minister, Punchng reports.
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He alleged that security operatives hit his head with rifle butts and also kicked him in the ribs causing him to lose consciousness. He says he still felt pains in his ribs and on his skull where he was assaulted by Dalung’s police orderlies.
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He vows to take legal action against the minister and the policemen, adding that he was talking to his lawyers about the next line of action on the alleged assault.
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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.
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Later they told us he said we should come back again, that he just resumed. While we were discussing this, the Hungarian ambassador walked in and I asked the minister’s personal assistant, ‘How can this man just walk in to see the minister and in our own country, we couldn’t see him’ and that was how his police aides started pushing me; one hit the back of my head with the butt of his rifle and my back and I just collapsed.”
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Ali 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.
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But the Director of Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Sports, Tolu Makinde, said Ali was merely stopped from molesting the ambassador and alleged that the boxer blocked him from entering the minister’s office.
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He said, “The security had to politely take him away to allow the ambassador to enter; he just enacted a melodrama and feigned slumping. He said he would not stand up, so they took him to their clinic for observation and rest.
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He wasn’t manhandled, but they (policemen) had to ensure he gave the right of way to the ambassador. You know what would happen if the ambassador was molested.”
