There was a mild drama at a filling station along the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road last week Wednesday after a Nigerian Air Force lance corporal slapped one Mrs. Florence Anih, a female police inspector attached to the Airport Police Command.
According to Punch report, Florence had driven into a branch of Forte Oil Filling Station on Airport Road to fill her fuel tank and discovered that there was a queue, which she joined.
When it was her turn to get fuel, the station attendant saw that her fuel tank was not directly facing the pump and asked her to turn her car for the tank to be in direct contact with the nozzle.
While she was at it, the corporal identified as Friday Zadiel, who was in a truck marked, Rotary Group 205 with another officer, who did not wear a name tag saw her and thought she was attempting to beat the queue.
An argument was said to have ensued between the duo when Zadiel ordered her to go back to the end of the queue. In the process, he allegedly slapped her and also broke the windscreen of her car.
An eyewitness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Zadiel and his colleague had earlier been given preferential treatment and allowed to fill the tank of their vehicle because they claimed to be on a special mission.
According to the witness, the manager of the station had intervened while they were arguing and ordered that the woman be served.
“After they were served, the air force man insisted that the woman should go back to the end of the queue.
“He started banging on her car and the woman challenged him. So, he told her, ‘you are stupid’ and the woman also replied him, ‘you are also stupid’ and that was how he slapped her,” the witness said.
The broken windscreen
Speaking on the incident, her husband, Mr. Justin Anih, said he was humiliated by it, adding that efforts to get the military authorities to punish Zadiel had been abortive.
He said: “I saw the base commander, who said it was indiscipline in the service and the man who beat my wife will be made to answer for it. I also spoke with the unit commander, who said he had sent people to investigate, but nothing has been done. I am bitter that my wife could be beaten and humiliated in public without provocation. There is no law in the country that permits him to do that to my wife.”
The Command Public Relations Officer, Logistics Command, Nigerian Air Force, Joel Abioye, confirmed the incident.
He explained that the matter had been resolved by the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the woman division.
This is not the first time Nigerian security officials will be clashing. Sometime in January, a Chief Superintendent of Police, Felicia Victor, was slapped by a yet-to-be identified air force officer attached to the office of the Commandant, Airport Command, Group Captain, Victor Ajiboye.
Some months back, some security agents threw caution to the wind and exchanged heavy blows in front of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, opposite the Eagle Square, Central Business District, Abuja.
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