Veteran Nigerian boxer, Bash Ali, has been given a space in Kuje Prison in Abuja to relax. The boxer is a World Boxing Federation (WBF) Cruiser-weight champion and holder of Nigeria’s OON National Honours.
It was reported that the Edo State-born veteran fighter was kept in the custody after he was accused of a criminal trespass, obstruction in public way, wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation, contrary to Sections 79, 85, 348, 194, 266 and 397 of penal code.
He was arrested alongside five others by police in Abuja last Wednesday at about 2p.m after one Bisong Peter of NEXIM Bank reported him at the Central Police Station. The bank said Bash Ali used a bus to block its entrance, thereby restricting staff from getting into their offices.
Last week, the boxer, who is seeking government’s help to stage a world record’s fight, sent out a message, informing members of the public of his detention.
The message reads;
“On Thursday we were arraigned at the Magistrate’s Court, Cotonou Street at Wuse Zone 6. At the end of the proceedings the Chief Magistrate agreed to grant me bail of N1 million with surety of a Level 10 Federal worker, which I refused. This forced the police to remand me at Kuje Prison till 4 March when the case will come up again.
“Fellow Nigerians, is this how we will allow corruption to continue in our dear country?”
The battle between Bash Ali and NEXIM Bank started after the pugilist accused the bank’s Managing Director, Robert Orya, of demanding the sum of $10 million as bribe out of the $30m President Goodluck Jonathan had asked the bank to release to the Local Organising Committee, LOC, of the Guinness Book of World Records fight which he (Bash Ali) plans to stage in Nigeria.
