Nigerian senator, Buruji Kashamu has reacted to a video purportedly showing him being slapped inside a London train.
Buruji Kashamu
The senator representing Ogun East, Buruji Kashamu, has denied claims that he is the one captured in a viral video being slapped on the head on a train in London.
According to a report by Punch, in the seven-second video, a bespectacled bald man whose face is not shown, is sitting on a train when another man in a white shirt standing behind him gives him a heavy smack on the head and runs off before his victim can do anything.
Though the assaulted man’s face isn’t seen, many Nigerians on social media alleged that the man was Senator Kashamu.
The senator’s spokesman, Austin Oniyokor, in an interview with our Correspondent, however, denied the involvement of his principal, saying no one could identify the person in the video as Kashamu.
Onyiokor said the video had been shared on WhatsApp with people alleging that the victim was Kashamu.
He said, “Can you identify that person as Senator Kashamu?
“I wonder why you want me to react to something I cannot identify.
“If you can identify him, I want you to tell me. I cannot identify the person as my principal.
“That some people are sending something on WhatsApp does not make it (true).
“I do not expect any reporter or any medium worth its name to attach any probative value to something that cannot be proved.
“That is not my principal and I don’t know why I should react to it.”
Kashamu’s spokesman described the alleged assault as a non-issue.
According to him, no one could identify the person in the video, “except whoever is writing that is saying they went to London on the same flight or he/she was there when it happened.”
Asked if the senator was in Nigeria, he said, “Yes, if you want to see him, you can come to VI. He’s in his office — I don’t know what kind of trash. It has been on WhatsApp for about two weeks and, last week, Kashamu buried his mother in Ijebu.
“People were there; it was reported. So, I don’t know where this trash comes from. I’m not sure you or Punch can establish that that is him.”
This comes four days after former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, was physically assaulted by members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra in Nuremberg, Germany, on Saturday, during the New Yam Festival of the Igbo.
See the controversial online viral video: