Ali said he was beaten by policemen attached to the minister after he demanded to see the head of Nigeria’s sports ministry.
Nigerian boxer Bash Ali is currently hospitalised from injuries he sustained from an alleged brutality from security men attached to the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung.
Ali said he was beaten by policemen attached to the minister after he demanded to see the head of Nigeria’s sports ministry.
According to the 38-year-old, the policemen hit him on the head with rifle butts and also kicked him in the ribs causing him to lose consciousness.
Ali said he was invited to come see the minister to discuss sponsorship about an upcoming fight of his
The boxer said he and his organising committee ended waiting for three hours without seeing the Minister.
The boxer became furious when they were told to come back at a later date but saw the Hungarian ambassador going in to see the minister.
“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 the next thing I was hit in the head with a rifle and I became unconscious,” Ali said in an audio interview obtained by Pulse Sports.
“I was revived about 30 minutes later, I was given first aid and brought to the National Hospital. These are the things suffered in our own country.
“For me to be beaten because I asked why should somebody go in to see the minister before me after waiting for hours?”
The boxer also accused Dalung of trying to frustrate the Guinness World Record boxing championship he was organising and also plotting to cut a deal for himself with the sponsors- the Bank of Industry and NEXIM Bank.
The Personal Assistant to the Sports Minister, Nneka Ikem, however, denied Ali’s allegations, revealing that the boxer was stopped from touching and embarrassing Dalung.
“From information available to me, Bash Ali was just stopped from touching and embarrassing the minister, he was being unruly,” Ikem told Pulse Sports.
"The Hungarian Ambassador to Nigeria, Prof. Gabor Ternak who had an earlier appointment for 2 pm arrived a few minutes later and was ushered in by the Protocol officer.
“Bash Ali barricaded the entrance to the office of the Minister with the men who accompanied him as he questioned why the ambassador would be allowed to see the Minister while he, who came earlier was not given.”
Ali is known to always been caught up in one controversy or the other.
He was arrested in February after he got into an altercation with the manager of NEXIM Bank over an alleged $10m dollar bribe.
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