Stephen Abuwatseya, the cab driver assaulted by the House of Representatives member from Abia State, Alexander Mascot Ikwechegh, has disclosed that an Investigating Police Officer, IPO, at the Maitama Police station was angry he recorded the assault he suffered.
Abuwatseya disclosed this while recounting the altercation with the lawmaker and his ordeal at the Police station when he was arrested.
An altercation had ensued between the cab driver and the lawmaker while he was delivering a package to him at his residence in the Maitama area of Abuja.
Ikwechegh threatened to make the cab driver disappear.
The Rep member also threatened to beat up the cabman and lock him up in his generator house.
Following the face-off, the cabman was arrested and bundled to the Maitama Police station.
Speaking with social media influencer, Martins Otse aka VeryDarkMan, Abuwatseya narrated his ordeal:
He said: “I got a request from Bolt while about to close at about 9pm and she said I was picking up something from a garden after Kado roundabout. When I got there she brought a package which was a snail.
On getting to the house, I saw him seated a few meters from my car and I greeted but he didn’t respond. I felt he was not the owner of the package.
The next thing he started insulting me, are you stupid? Mad? Are you a fool? Bring my stuff for me. I wasn’t happy with the way he spoke to me because I was doing my job. Aggrieved I responded that normally I wasn’t supposed to bring this to you, you were supposed to pick it yourself and he became angry.
They referred us to crime and I explained what happened. While speaking with the honourable on the phone, the IPO stepped out and said he wanted to carryout an investigation at the honourable’s house in Maitama.
They kept me for over two hours behind the counter and was not detained. After two hours, he came back and was quarrelling about why I recorded the video. I asked if there was a part of the law that says I can’t record. He was becoming a threat to me and I had to take evidence.
They gave me a form to fill and write my statement, while writing the honourable came and was shouting, calling me names. He called me a common bolt driver, a poor man, I have pride. I replied him saying so a poor man can’t speak as a Nigerian? I shouldn’t be treated like a foreigner.
I left the station around 3.00 and my car is still at the station because they collected it. The honourable was not detained.