A trending video showing the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar, physically assaulting a guard has sparked online outrage, raising questions about the mental competence of a man bestowed with the power his position holds.

The eleven minutes 39 seconds video captured Umar violently assaulting a guard identified as Clement Sagwak at Banex Plaza in Abuja to the chagrin of onlookers.

It was gathered that the young security guard told the CCT Chairman to properly park his car, a statement which Umar found offensive and all hell broke loose.

The online video showed that the security details that accompanied Danladi Umar first dealt with the victim, then the visibly infuriated chairman added a few more slaps before the tenants and onlookers could intervene.

Sources say that Dan Ladi, who has had several charges of fraud levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had gone to report the security guard at the Maitama police station but got the charges dropped by a lawyer sent from the One Love Foundation.

It was further gathered that when the DPO of Maitama police station saw the video showing the physical assault and humiliation meted out on the security guard by Danladi Umar, he promptly ordered for his release on bail.

The video, however, has once again called into question the mental, academic and behavioural standards considered before appointing a person for public office, especially a position as noble as the head of the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

To put it in context, the disgraceful video is as sacrilegious as seeing the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal publicly kicking and slapping a defenceless guard in a fit of unbridled anger.

This is a man holding a position powerful enough to pronounce the removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, as seen in the 2019 sack of Justice Walter Onnoghenwho was found guilty of breach of Code of Conduct for Public Officers.

DANLADI’S PUBLIC DISPLAY OF ANGER POSES A CHALLENGE OF HIS MENTAL CAPACITY TO JUDGE A CASE IMPARTIALLY

Judicial temperament is one of the most important qualities of a judge, one the CCT chair’s public display proves he lacks. That is not to say a judge can not have emotions, but a noble judge must be emotionally well regulated.

Despite several pleas to let the defenceless man be, Mr Danladi Umar was not satisfied, and one fear what would have been of the young man if the incident occurred in a private more secluded space with no onlookers with cameras to come to the victim’s defence.

Danladi’s failure to rile in his anger by assaulting a defenceless man who was doing his job at his duty post is a slap to the position he holds and the Nigerian Legal Profession.

The CCT chairman, publicly losing his cool and behaving irrationally in public begs the question how many of cases before the tribunal have his unbridled emotions negatively affected?

A man making an honest living deserves respect while carrying out his job at his place of employment, this is the message that must be passed across from government to citizens, especially at a time like this when get-rich-schemes need to be strongly eschewed from our society.

The world is watching to see if the Nigeria Bar Association and the National Judicial Council would let this affront on their noble profession slide.