In the middle of last month, a video of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, struggling to read his speech at an event in Kano State suddenly went viral. It trended online for the rest of that month.
Although IGP Idris swiftly reacted that the video was doctored to ridicule him, many Nigerians seemed to savour the “transmission, transmission, transmission” video. “Transmission, transmission, transmission” was the operative word while the joke about the IGP’s faux pas lasted.
Mischievous music producers and stand-up comedians even made remixes and skits of what has turned out to be the infamous “transmission speech” of the police boss, to entertain Nigerians.
However, an attempt by a Master of Ceremony at a funeral ceremony in Benin, Edo State, to carry the “Transmission, transmission, transmission” joke too far into the venue of a social event has landed him in hospital, following injuries he sustained from the beatings he got from some angry anti-riot policemen.
The MC (names withheld) had, in the course of his directing the programme of events at the burial ceremony, which took place at Jemila Road, Ikpoba Hill, Benin City, Edo State, cracked jokes about the IGP’s inability to coherently deliver his speech in Kano.
But unknown to him, some anti-riot policemen, allegedly drinking and smoking behind a canopy nearby had got angry over his audacity to crack such inappropriate jokes about their overall boss at a social function.
While the MC was having a field day doing what he believed he knew how to do best, the anti-riot policemen stormed the party, landed some blows on him from behind and grabbed him as he made to escape!
They gave him more thorough pummeling, leaving him injured. The angry policemen hit the MC several times with the butts of their guns and the guitars belonging to the invited musician, popularly called Bernard O.
The ensuing drama took all the guests at the party by surprise! Not done with the MC, the raging policemen also went straight for the musical instruments of the musician entertaining guests at the party, destroying some of them.
While the MC was having a field day doing what he believed he knew how to do best, the anti-riot policemen stormed the party, landed some blows on him from behind and grabbed him as he made to escape!
One of the policemen, who was shouting, “Danburuba! Shege! Idiots!,” was at the same time hitting the MC continuously with the butt of his gun.
The commotion caused by the attack of the policemen on the MC at the party, however, disrupted the burial ceremony, resulting in many guests scampering to safety.
In fact, it took the intervention of a retired Army General (names withheld) before normalcy returned to the venue of the burial ceremony.
By the time the dust raised by the rampaging policemen settled, the MC had been seriously injured and some sympathetic guests at the ceremony, who later returned to their seats, ferried him to an undisclosed hospital in Benin for treatment.
Guests at the burial ceremony were of the opinion that the violent action of the policemen was influenced by their “excess intake of alcohol and smoking of Indian hemp” before launching the attack on
the MC.
Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia,
Benin, Edo State.
