Following the misleading story reported by Evening Express, a Scottish evening paper, on the arrest of one of Africa's leading gospel artistes and Globacom ambassador, Sammie Okposo during his honeymoon in Aberdeen over a racist statement, the artiste and the Nigerians who were present at the scene of the ugly incident have risen to set the records straight.
According to information made available to us by MME (Media & Marketing Experts) and different comments of eye witnesses posted on different websites especially on nairaland.com, Sammie and his newly wedded wife, Ozioma in the company of their friends, Mr and Mrs Efemua, also Nigerians, had gone to a restaurant known as Jimmy Chung's on Aberdeen's Beach Esplanade to attend to their noisy stomachs.
They were said to have arrived at the restaurant at exactly 4.30pm in the evening but were not aware that lunchtime ended at 5pm. One of the attendants, a lady, who some Nigerians described as very violent, announced to them few minutes later that they have to rush their food and leave the restaurant before 5pm or else they will be charged for both lunch and dinner.
At this point, Sammie was already serving the food while the others were sorting out where they would sit.
Witnesses said the Nigerians questioned the attendant. They wondered why she had not informed them when they arrived, saying they would probably have waited till 5pm before settling down in the restaurant.
The argument was said to have attracted the attention of the manager of the restaurant (identified as Ronny Shui Hung Yung), who aggravated the issue the more. Another lady allegedly went ahead to drag Sammie's shirt, ordering him to stop dishing out the food; an act that so many people in the restaurant described as unprofessional and barbaric. But Sammie was said to have taken it easy. “He told her politely that she shouldn't have pulled his shirt. At this point, the manager of the restaurant was already harassing Sammie's wife and the pregnant wife of his friend, Eloho Efemua, who happens to be the younger sister of popular Nigerian actor, Fred Amata.
"When Sammie turned back after the violent attendant pulled his shirt and realised the manager was raising hands and pointing accusing fingers at his wife and the pregnant lady in a very disrespectful and demeaning manner not meant for a gentleman and a service provider, he immediately swung into action and warned the manager in a very hard tone to desist from harassing and accusing his wife and Mrs Efemua after he had been briefed about what happened", a witness told Rhythm and Sounds.
When the manager wouldn't stop but was getting more motivated, we heard that Sammie, who was very shocked and displeased at that point, told the manager that he should make sure his fingers don't touch his wife and that if he is tired of running this kind of restaurant, he should return to his country. Immediately Sammie made this statement, the manager wrote down Sammie's friend's car number and called the police to report a racial statement being made against him.
Having realised he had called the police, Sammie urged his wife including the other couple that they should wait for the police's arrival and thrash out the issue once and for all. It was reported that the police didn't arrive until 30 minutes after the distress call but the couples waited outside the restaurant till they arrived.
What however shocked the people present at scene, we gathered, was that the Scottish Police, as professional as they claimed to be, failed to ask any questions from the two Nigerian couples before taking them to the police station after listening to the restaurant manager. This, we heard, infuriated some Nigerians present at the restaurant and they registered their displeasure with the restaurant management.
Speaking for the first time on the incident, Sammie Okposo told journalists in Lagos who have been eager to hear from him that he is only a victim of circumstance. “It is true they took us to their police station without listening to our own side of the story but we played along with them as good and law abiding citizens of Nigeria. After the court in Aberdeen did a thorough check on me from all the countries I have visited, they said my record is clean and impeccable. I was released the next day without making any official statements. But if the manager of the restaurant presses the issue further and it results to a court case, my lawyer in Scotland, Michael Munro will handle it. I don't regret my actions for speaking up against bad and rude behaviours from the staff of Jimmy Chung's. I don't regret defending my wife as a true African man,” he said.
Sammie's wife, Ozioma was very sad about the incidence. In her words, “We could afford to go to anywhere in the world for our honeymoon, but we chose to visit Aberdeen because of all the good things we had heard. We have been emotionally, mentally, financially and physically drained by this trip; which brings us to one conclusion: that going to Aberdeen for our honeymoon was the biggest mistake we would ever make in our marriage”.
Okposo was alleged to have caused alarm or distress to Ronny Shui Hung Yung by shouting, swearing and uttering racial remarks at the Aberdeen restaurant. He was also accused of acting in a racially aggravated manner by Scottish Evening Express. Against the ethos of journalism, the paper published the story based on the reports of the restaurant's manager, whose unprofessional conduct has greatly been criticised, without listening to the other party and the eye witnesses.
Sammie Okposo's lawyer in Nigeria revealed that Sammy is going to raise a case of personal harassment and aggravation against the restaurant management and the violation of his human rights by the Aberdeen police. The lawyer is filing a petition to the Nigerian High Commission and United Nations, where he is an ambassador.
One of the comments posted on nairaland.com, based on the experience of the writer at the said restaurant, says “the distasteful, snotty and poor attitude of staff of Jimmy Chung Restaurant resonates in good measure to all of its outlets in the Granite-city of Aberdeen; as if to say it was a management requirement for its staff. The attendants and staff look down their nose at you as if you're a fly in their soup”.