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By Publisher<\/span><\/p>\n Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, has come under attack for ordering his security aides to slap one of the Islamic clerics at a gathering.<\/span><\/p>\n Bago, in a video seen by Sunday PUNCH, ordered his aide to \u2018slap\u2019 the cleric.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSlap him, very well. I said slap him. Go and arrest him. Deal with him well-well\u201d, the governor ordered.<\/span><\/p>\n He thereafter uttered a Hausa idiomatic expression which was interpreted as \u201cI have power.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The cleric, who knelt down, was dragged away from the gathering by one of the security operatives suspected to be an officer of the Department of State Services.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the people at the gathering were laughing and giggling when the governor gave the order.<\/span><\/p>\n The offence committed by the cleric was not known, but sources said he wanted to give the closing prayer at the event which the governor opposed.<\/span><\/p>\n Reacting on social media on Saturday, many Nigerians described the governor\u2019s action as an abuse of power. A popular skit maker, Debo Adedayo, popularly known as Mr Macaroni, wrote, \u201cA governor who has sworn to serve the people is ordering a security agent to assault the same citizen he sworn to serve. See security agent too, flexing muscles on a man already on his knees. Continue pushing the people until they get to the wall.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSee my people laughing and giggling while their brother, a fellow human being like them was being assaulted by the same person that swore to serve and protect them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Also an X user identified as @greatjoe01 tweeted, \u201cI sincerely understand when people argue against state policing for fear of this kind of abuse of power from the governors. But what exactly are the governors not doing with the federal police now?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHere is a DSS agent being ordered to carry out illegality. What are we afraid of?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking to Sunday PUNCH, a human rights lawyer, Mr Deji Ajare, condemned the governor\u2019s action, describing it as a violation of the cleric\u2019s right.<\/span><\/p>\n However, when contacted, the governor\u2019s Chief Press Secretary, Bologi Ibrahim, said he was not aware of the viral video.<\/span><\/p>\n He said, \u201cI am not aware of the video. Is it social media work? I will look for it, let me check.\u201d Punch<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Publisher Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, has come under attack for ordering his security aides to slap one of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[235],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-gov-mohammed-bago"],"yoast_head":"\n