Video: Man flogged for allegedly “insulting” LG chairman

Two video clips currently circulating on WhatsApp and Facebook have captured two men flogging a man whom they accused of insulting a local government chairman in Akwa Ibom State.

PREMIUM TIMES is yet to ascertain the date and the location of the incident in the video.

The two men in the videos are yet to be identified as at the time of filing this report, but they are said to be the aides to Imoh Williams, the chairman of Abak Local Government Area, whom they said the man insulted.

The man assaulted has been identified as Godwin Abraham, a local artisan from the same Abak Local Government Area.

One of the men is heard in the video interrogating Mr Abraham who is seen lying down on the bare floor.

The conversation is in Annang, one of the indigenous languages in Akwa Ibom.

The second man is seen in the video using his foot to press Mr Abraham’s head to the floor.

“Say you won’t do it again!” the man who is doing the questioning said to Mr Abraham.

“I won’t do it again,” Mr Abraham responded.

He lifted up his face from the ground, and with fright all over him, he looked up, at the man questioning him.

“Come on, keep that your face down,” the second man shouted at him. The man used his foot to press Mr Abraham’s head to the floor.  

“Do you know that you insulted the chairman of Abak Local Government Area?” the interrogation resumed.

“Yes!”

“Is it okay for you to insult the chairman of Abak?”

“No!”

“Do you know that for insulting the chairman of Abak, you have insulted the people of Abak? Who sent you do it?”

“I said nobody! Nobody sent me!”

From the questions and answers, it is obvious that the poor artisan may have done some job for the local government chairman and he (the chairman) refused to pay for it.

The artisan, Mr Abraham, perhaps out of frustration and anger, may have taken to Facebook to write about the chairman’s indebtedness to him. And this, probably, is why the chairman’s aides said he insulted him (the chairman).

“How much does the chairman owe you?” the man who was doing the questioning asked Mr Abraham.

“All the work I have done for him amount to N75, 000.”

“So, because of that you insulted the chairman of Abak, you went and wrote what you wrote on Facebook?

“Will you delete that thing you wrote on Facebook?”

“Yes, I will,” the artisan answered.

“Listen, you have to go back to Facebook and apologise to the chairman! Write it there that you are begging the chairman and the people of Abak to forgive you.”

The man who was doing the questioning instructed the other man to flog the artisan.

Immediately, the man started whipping him with a belt.

“Aaaaah, they have killed me,” the artisan is seen crying in the video, rolling on the floor and begging.

At some point, a woman’s voice is heard in the second video appealing to the men to stop flogging the man.

PREMIUM TIMES, Tuesday, contacted Mr Williams, the chairman of Abak Local Government Area, for his comment on the issue.

A PREMIUM TIMES reporter clearly told the chairman in a text message that the paper wanted to speak with him concerning a video showing some men, said to be his aides, flogging a man whom they accused of insulting him on Facebook.

Mr William, who did not deny the story, said he was boarding an aircraft and that he would speak with the reporter when he lands in his destination.

Since then, he has not called the reporter nor responded to a follow-up text message from the paper.

PREMIUM TIMES tried again, several times, throughout Wednesday and on Thursday morning to reach the chairman, but calls to his phone lines were not connecting.

Nigerians recently were outraged over a similar incident where a senator was caught on video assaulting a woman in an Abuja shop.

The senator, Elisha Abbo, from Adamawa state, has been arraigned in court for assault.