Jide Babalola, the Senior Special Assistant to the Deputy Senate President on Print, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, has alleged that the lawmaker representing Oluyole federal constituency, Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, ordered his arrest for standing too close to her during an elevator ride at the National Assembly complex.
According to the information scooped from Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Babalola was said to have spent close to two hours in detention at the crime unit of the National Assembly before another member of the house of representatives requested for his bail.
“I joined the public elevator on the third floor of the house of reps building, going down because I needed to take care of some things. I have always avoided the elevators meant for reps members and senators since 2000, because they are not meant for the public, and because that is the right way of doing things,” he said.
Babalola added that there were close to seven people in the elevator when he joined it.
“Two other people also joined the elevator after I did, and I made sure not to rub shoulders with anybody. Corona Virus is still out there. I was infected last year and I know what I went through before I recovered. All of a sudden, the honourable member shouted at me from behind, saying I was about to bump into her. Then I asked, “Madam, why would I bump into you?”, he questioned.
Meanwhile, he said the lawmaker became furious after she was referred to as ‘madam’ and started to scream at him.
“While she was screaming, she said she was an honourable member and started asking questions like, ‘Who are you?’ ‘What is your name?’ And so on,” the media aide told FIJ.
Babalola explained further that when they got to the ground floor, they met other reps members and the Minister of Health, who also saw her screaming.
He continued, “After listening to her explanation of what happened, one of the reps members told me that even if I felt I had not done anything wrong, I should still apologise to her, and I immediately did.
“After apologising and everyone had gone their way, I thought all had been settled. I was heading to the exit, then she beckoned on the officers working with the sergeant-at-arms and some policemen that I must be arrested, saying she still wanted to take the matter up with me and that I should not be released till she got back from where she was going.
“I was first taken to the police post attached to the National Assembly before being transferred to the crimes unit in the complex.
“It was while I was writing a statement at the crimes unit that another house of reps member heard of the incident and came for my bail,” the DSP aide narrated.
Responding, Akande-Shadipe, said it was a case of gender harassment.
“I was talking to a staff member of NASS when he came in. All I said to him was, ‘Please, don’t step back’, and he turned on me, intimidating me, because I am a woman. This is a case of gender bias and gender intimidation,” she told FIJ.
The lawmaker noted that if Babalola had stepped back, he would have had “a direct body contact with her”, step on her and they would have ridden “body-to-body” in the elevator.
“He was standing directly in front of me and if he stepped back his body would be having direct contact with my body, as he was directly in front of me and he could misjudge the distance between us,”.
“There was no space for me to step back and we would have ridden in that elevator body to body. Unacceptable”, the lawmaker said.
