Security whisks Senator Olujimi, as PASSAN members attack her

• I was not slapped – Senator

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi and Chrisyiana Ekpa

The Senate Deputy Minority Leader, was yesterday whisked away by security operatives over misunderstanding with members of the Parliamentary staff association of Nigeria (PASSAN).
She reportedly ordered her security aide to slap the PASSAN member who retaliated, thereby attracting the attention of the other members of PSSSAN who threatened to attack the senator.
She was said to have been enraged by the decision of the PASSAN member to enter her lift.
However, when contacted, the Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate denied being slapped by a member of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASSAN) as widely reported by the online media.
She also denied having asked her security aide to slap the PASSAN staff who had altercation with him over her (Olujimi’s) presence in the staff lift.
When journalists sought her clarification on the allegation that she was slapped and physically rough-handled, the lawmakers said, “I went for a public hearing and I understood that there was another meeting upstairs.
“So, I got into a lift; yes it was a staff lift and I thought that everyone should be able to go into it and my security stood in front of me.
“Some gentlemen and women came in and were abusing why he will shield anybody, saying get out; this is our lift. One of them just pushed him (the security aide) and then they had altercation. I just came out and told them that it was wrong – and that is what happened.
On the other version of the online reports that she asked her aide to slap somebody, Olujimi said, “could I have done that, is it possible, how can ask anybody to slap. The boy came, and they brought him and I told him he should go because he knew that he didn’t do well.
“You didn’t do well because you were the one that slapped him. I didn’t even say a word all through because I stood at the back. It wasn’t my business, it was the business of the security man.
“Yes I was in the staff lift. But what says we can’t go in staff lift. When I see people standing outside in distinguished senators lift, I ask them to come in because I believe that is the way it should be. How could I have slapped anybody at my age, and level. That is not possible”.