Mr Yemi Badru, an officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service at the Ikoyi Passport Office, has come under fire for reporting an alleged assault on him by a senior officer, Nasir Umar, to the police.
Badru, a Deputy Superintendent of Immigration, was said to have been querried by the NIS for reporting the alleged assault on him to the police.
Sources revealed that Badru was deployed in the Very Important Persons’ unit to attend to passport applicants when Umar, who is a Superintendent of Immigration, walked into the office and accused the officer of being too slow at his duty post.
The victim was reported to have told Umar that he could not have been faster than he was because the Internet services were poor on the day, but the senior officer was said to have abused him.
Not satisfied with the verbal abuse, Umar was alleged to have rained slaps on Badru, but a superior officer to both of them stepped in to prevent the incident from degenerating into a brawl.
Sources said other men and officers of the NIS were pained by the assault and the alleged cover-up of the incident, saying Umar had been abusive to junior colleagues and unruly to some of his seniors, because of his connection to top officers in the NIS.
One of the sources said, “Rather than punishing Umar for beating Badru, some powerful persons in the Immigration have now said Badru should be queried for reporting the case to the police. It is an attempt to cover up Umar’s misdeed, because he is a northerner and the bosses also are from the North.
“We are interested in how this case will be addressed, because if Umar gets away with it and Badru, who was assaulted, is punished, then Umar can kill any of us, who are not from the North, and he will get away with it. We want the NIS leadership to intervene in this case so that justice will be served.”
