The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Supreme Court judgments

    Emeka Omeihe

     

    IN the last one week or so, the Supreme Court disposed a number of governorship election cases brought before it by aggrieved candidates in the March 9, 2019 elections.

    Bauchi, Plateau, Sokoto, Adamawa, Benue and Kano were among the states that had their cases finally determined. Before then, the apex court had also handed down its verdict on the Imo governorship election appeals brought before it by three aggrieved candidates.

    Unlike the seeming general relief that followed rulings in the above six states, that of Imo was greeted with considerable uproar, anger and disbelief. It generated so much controversy and tension that the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) leadership had to address a hurried press briefing in which they levelled several damaging allegations against the leadership of the judiciary and the government in power.

    The National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus apparently sensing that a very dangerous precedent had been set by the judgment warned, “any further attempt to subvert justice in the pending petitions on Sokoto, Bauchi, Benue, Adamawa as well as Kano and Plateau states will be firmly and vehemently resisted”.

    As things turned out, those six cases have been finally determined. And there appears some relief that justice has not only been done but seen to have been done in most of them. It is left to be conjectured whether the way these judgments turned out to the seeming satisfaction of the public has anything to do with the alarm and warning by the PDP.

    Whatever the case, it is worthy of note that they are bereft of the protestations, anger and accusations that marked the judgment on the Imo petition. The proper reading of the serenity in public order arising from the Supreme Court’s judgments in the six states in contrast with the national anger and rejection of its ruling on Imo is that the public knows when the course of justice has been served. That is the issue to contend with.

    And what are the issues?  The apex court had in its ruling voided the election of governor Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP and declared Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner. It further ordered that Uzodinma should be sworn-in immediately based on its admission of results from the contentious 388 polling units which the APC candidate claimed were excluded from the total number of votes credited to him by the INEC.

    The Supreme Court noted that results from the cancelled polling units amounted to 213, 295 votes and admitted them as lawful votes. The court further directed the addition of all the unlawfully cancelled votes it said were due to Uzodinma and declared that Ihedioha was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes. By the figures released by the INEC after the elections, total accredited votes stood at 823,743 while total valid votes amounted to 714, 355. But with the Supreme Court’s new additions, the total number of valid votes increased to 950, 925.  This amounted to 127, 209 votes in excess of the accredited votes of 823, 743.

    This singular arithmetical error raises issues as to the criteria used by the apex court in arriving at the decision that Uzodinma won the election. If we go by that figure in the strictest sense of it, what we are confronted with is over voting which cannot confer electoral advantage on any of the candidates. How the apex court generated figures over and above that duly accredited by INEC is at the heart of the absurdity of the ruling. Curiously, the contradiction arising from that arithmetic error was glossed over in awarding victory to the APC candidate.

    There are also issues regarding the possibility of a candidate that came fourth in that election taking advantage of the said results to overtake all the other candidates to the point of emerging victorious. We have also been treated to the legal incongruities of tendering and admitting the results of the 388 polling units even when the electoral umpire had dismissed them as alien to them and without showing the standing of the other parties in the contest in those units.

    This point is further illustrated given that in the state assembly election that was held contemporaneously with the governorship polls; the PDP won 13 seats, AA eight and APGA six seats making up the 27 local governments of the state. Curiously, the APC did not win any seat in that election. All these go to reinforce the widely held view that there is more to the ruling of the Supreme Court than ordinarily meets the eyes. It is therefore not surprising that the verdict has not been well received across the country. The general view is that it compromised the collective will of the Imo electorate as expressed at the ballot box.

    The matter is not just about Ihedioha. It is also not just about Imo State. It is about the rule of law, justice and the overall future of democratic engagement in this country. It is all about the inalienable rights of a people to determine those to preside over their affairs through the instrumentality of periodic, free and fair elections. It is about the sovereignty of the electorate; the relevance of representative democracy as the most cherished construct to approximate the collective will of a people.

    These are the conceptual and philosophical issues that have come under trial by the ruling of the apex court as it concerns Imo State. Above all, it is also about the relevance and integrity of the judiciary as an impartial arbiter. These conceptual and philosophical issues have miserably come under serious interrogation with a crisis of relevance to contend with.

    Or are we to take comfort in Thrasymachus’ notion of justice in Plato’s Republic as ‘the interest of the stronger’? What of the Marxian perspective that the judiciary is part of the superstructure that protects the interests of the ruling class.  What will be the overall impact of the increasing challenge of such notions on societal cohesion?

    We raise these questions because western capitalism/democracy is an ideological construct for societal organization. The same goes for communism and its variant of socialism. These were competing paradigms for organizing statecraft. But we are all very familiar with the setting in of systemic decay in the former Soviet Union. Due to the stagnation of their economy and polity, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the policy of perestroika and glasnosts which culminated in a chain of events that led to the collapse of communism.

    That is now history. But there is nothing to rule out systemic stress or decay within the capitalist economy especially if the very foundation (democracy) on which it was erected is no longer living to expectations. The point here is that democracy is an ideological construct for societal organization. It is based on a set rules and its relevance or lack of it will depend on how effective it is in living up to those rules without which its legitimacy will become suspect.

    That is the dialectics we are confronted with by the Supreme Court judgment in the Imo governorship election. It is all about the propriety and legitimacy of judicial decisions. It is about the legitimacy of the electoral process as the most cherished paradigm for approximating the collective will of a people. These are the principles that have come under serious attack by the curious and inexplicable ruling of the apex court in the Imo case.

    There are many unresolved issues in that judgment that will impair our judicial and electoral processes if allowed to linger. The arithmetic errors and how the Supreme Courts arrived at their decision to elevate the fourth to the first position need further clarifications if the course of justice and democracy is to be seen to have been served.

     

  • Mbaka: Prophecy and counter-prophecy

    Femi Macaulay

     

    Interestingly, the Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Anambra State, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, who successfully prophesied the removal of the immediate past governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, claims to have not only the power of prophecy but also the power of counter-prophecy.  According to him, the prophecy was fulfilled because of Ihedioha’s inaction after the prophet had made the prophecy.

    Mbaka had expected Ihedioha to take action against the prophecy. He was quoted as saying:   “What’s the distance from Imo State to Enugu, that after giving the message on December 31, 2019, Ihedioha cannot come to adoration and seek God’s intervention, rather he embarked on attacking and castigating the message and the messenger…. I think that when a message like that is given, the right thing to do is to ask the prophet what to do to avert it.”

    It’s intriguing that Mbaka thought Ihedioha should have consulted him to counter the prophecy. Can a seer cancel what he saw?  If it’s possible for a prophet to counter his prophecy, where is the power of the prophecy? Supposing Ihedioha had consulted Mbaka to reverse the prophecy, would he have done so, and would that have resulted in victory for the removed governor at the Supreme Court?

    Mbaka is enjoying the public attention that followed the fulfillment of his prophecy that Hope Uzodinma would become Imo State Governor after Ihedioha’s removal. Mbaka had said: “In spite of all that will happen this 2020, there is hope. In Imo State, there is hope. Imo people have suffered (but) God is raising a new hope that would be an agent of salvation for them.”

    The priest shed light on his prophecy, and spoke of someone “coming with a new flag,” and “a new leadership that will break barriers,” and “a new government in Imo.”  For clarity’s sake, he declared: “I bless Hope Uzodinma, and empower him to spiritually take over.”

    It’s food for thought that the Supreme Court judgement of January 14 was consistent with Mbaka’s prophecy.  It was bragging time, and a euphoric Mbaka took advantage of it.

    His spokesman, Maximus Ugwuoke, said in a statement:  “Uzodinma becoming the governor of Imo was just a part of the about 40 prophetic prayers Fr. Mbaka made on December 31. But that became the only issue people satanically picked against him.

    “God has vindicated Fr. Mbaka as He has always done for Fr. Mbaka and adoration ministry in all the battles, vituperations and attacks the ministry had faced in the past. To God be the glory.”

    The spokesman crowed:  “We are not all gifted alike, Fr. Mbaka’s prophetic gift should be a source of pride for the Catholic Church and indeed all true Christians as a living evidence of divine presence within the  Church. As a lawyer, I tell you that there are double fold angles to this miracle.

    “One is the miraculous resuscitation of Hope Uzodinma from the far away position he was placed in the election result announced by INEC in Imo State. The second is the unanimous confirmation of the seven Justices of the Supreme Court (without a dissent view) that Uzodinma was the rightful winner of the election.”

    So Mbaka has about 39 other prophecies, which the attentive public doesn’t know about because the Uzodinma prophecy overshadowed them.  What are these other prophecies about? Will these other prophecies be fulfilled in the same way the Uzodinma prophecy was fulfilled? Can Mbaka counter any of these prophecies if asked to do so? If Mbaka can counter his own prophecies, can others also counter his prophecies?

    It’s unclear when Mbaka, who was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church on July 29, 1995, began to make prophecies. His greatest prophecy must be the one about the victory of Muhammadu Buhari over then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.When the prophecy happened, the prophet became the one to watch.

    But the prophet was wrong when in 2018 he told President Buhari to forget about reelection. Mbaka had said: “As I was waiting on the Lord, I’m asked to advise you, don’t come out for second tenure; after this, retire peacefully. Come back to yourself or you will cry by the time you will be sent out of office. Those who are encouraging you to come out and run again want to disgrace you shamefully and publicly.” Buhari was reelected.

    Successful political prophecies bring rewards.  Mbaka was at the Government House in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on the day Uzodinma was sworn in as governor. A report quoted a source as saying:  “Fr. Mbaka was here… He was the one who dedicated the governor’s office. He was here for over three hours. He came with another priest, Fr. Otimbodombo and his church workers.”

    But the priest didn’t go to Heroes Square Arena, where the new governor was sworn in. Isn’t he a hero of sorts, having successfully prophesied Ihedioha’s fall and Uzodinma’s rise?  He may well have avoided further controversy by avoiding the arena.

    Mbaka’s prophetic performance reignited a debate about priests as prophets, and prophets as priests.  Not surprisingly, Mbaka argued for prophetic performers. The prophet said:  “Those who are advocating banning prophecy are ungodly.  The Catholic Church is a prophetic church. Stopping prophecy is closing the mouth of the Holy Spirit. The church will ordain you a priest, baptize you, and confirm you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; when you start doing the work of the Holy Spirit, the same church will attack you. This is uncalled for.”

    The prophet is aware that some people consider his prophetic success regarding the Imo State governorship election too good to be true. His response: ”Some of you who are saying that I’m an APC man and I collect money for prophecy should stop talking. If it is a question of money Goodluck Jonathan wouldn’t have lost the 2015 presidential election because they were ready to give me everything provided they retained the seat. The message is not partisan, I’m not a politician, I am a prophet of God.”

    However, in Ihedioha’s case, it’s suspicious that the prophet said he had expected the former governor to consult him on how to reverse the prophecy. It seems Mbaka speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

     

  • Operation Amotekun

    By Emeka Omeihe

    Raging controversy on the establishment of a security network, Operation Amotekun by Southwest governors has again brought to the fore all that is wrong with us as a country.

    The governors last week in Ibadan, Oyo State launched the security outfit which is intended to complement the efforts of the police and other security agencies in maintaining law and order. By its details, each state is to take care of operatives within its domain, pay salaries of the staff of Amotekun and regulate their activities. But they are also to maintain trans-border cooperation to check the relative ease with which criminals commit crimes in one state and cross over to other contiguous states.

    The new outfit is the response of Southwest governors to the escalating security challenges in their part of the country, though such security infractions are by no means limited to that region alone. Top among these security challenges are kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry, the insurgency of herdsmen and ancillary criminalities that have virtually reduced this country to a verity of the Hobbesian state of nature where life has become nasty, short and brutish.

    Amotekun was conceived to complement the efforts of the conventional security agencies by providing them with relevant information through access to very remote areas and bushes which ordinarily, are difficult for the former to penetrate. Apparently sensing the prospects of misreading of the initiative, Southwest governors have made strident efforts to assuage fears of clash of interest with conventional security agencies.  And in the words of Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, rather than a competitor with existing national security platforms, “it aims to complement them in the areas of neighborhood watch, information and intelligence gathering, detection of early warning signs and acting as liaison between conventional security and the local population”. It is therefore neither an army of the region nor a usurper of the functions of other security agencies but to fill gaps left by their modus operandi.

    And these gaps have become increasingly glaring given the plethora of security challenges that are stretching the security agencies beyond tolerable limits and threatening to tear the country apart. The minimum expectation given all this, is for all and sundry to put heads together and evolve solutions that will permanently stem the tide of insecurity and save the country the bickering and accusations that arise from wanton killings.

    Rather than support the initiative, vested interests seem to be working to throw spanners in the wheels of the new undertaking. Nothing betrays this mindset more than the statement credited to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami describing the outfit as illegal. He had also threatened severe action against the promoters of the outfit. Expectedly, Malami’s statement incurred the ire of southwest governors, notable traditional rulers and key personages from the region who have in unison condemned it.

    There appears a general consensus that the Southwest is irretrievably committed to seeing ‘Operation Amotekun’ to its logical conclusion given that the alternative is to perpetually condemn their constituents to the insecurity that has sent many innocent ones to their early graves. They seem prepared to slug it out with the authorities since they believe every society has a way of preserving itself from undesirable elements. They are right.

    But they have not ruled out dialogue even as they are prepared to challenge the government in the courts if it comes to that. That underscores how serious the region is with the initiative and there is a limit beyond which the federal government cannot possibly stretch this matter without compromising and inflicting mortal injury on the sensibilities of people of that region.

    Even as the promoters of the outfit are piqued by Malami’s statement, a more disingenuous dimension to the matter was introduced by the Miyetti Allah Kautal  Hore, the umbrella organization of Fulani herdsmen. The organization through its National Secretary, Alhassan Saleh warned Southwest governors to withdraw their support for Operation Amotekun or risk their region’s chances of securing the presidency in 2023.

    Hear him: “it is best they give up on this idea because it may affect the chances of the Southwest to produce the president in 2023. The thinking is that if the Southwest, a major stakeholder in this government can be toying with this idea now, they may do worse when they get to power”.

    Ironically, Miyetti Allah is one organization that the activities of its members have been a major factor in the series of security challenges that have brought about the current pass. That group has been seriously fingered by the Benue State government in the series of bloodletting, despoliation and sacking of the natives from their ancestral lands. Time without number, the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom has called for the arrest and prosecution of its leadership for alleged culpability in the orgy of violence that has left the state a ghost of its former self. But the authorities failed to take any action.

    It is an uncanny irony that this infamous group has now found itself at the forefront of faulting the Operation Amotekun initiative. It is amazing that a group which went asleep when the murderous activities of its members was tearing the country asunder, has suddenly found its voice because those at the receiving end have now risen up to the challenge. The ranting of the herders’ group including blackmailing the Southwest region with the presidency bait is totally in bad taste even as it further strikes at the fault lines of our national existence.

    The presumption that the presidency is the exclusive preserve of the north which it will hand over to whoever does its bidding, is at the root of statements like this. And they are coming up rather too frequently. Not long ago, a group that purports to represent the collective opinion of northern youths bandied similar sentiments. We never heard of such tribally tainted outbursts while Obasanjo, Yar’Adua or Jonathan held sway. The fact that they have become a regular way of blackmailing the rights of sections of this country to the presidency exposes the feeling that some still nurse the warped idea that leadership is their birth right.  It is the nurturing of similar feelings that accounts for the unbridled resistance to genuine innovations and ideas that hold the prospects for the steady growth, progress and development of this country.

    The emerging reality is that the people of the Southwest have been pushed to a point that they have to take the destiny of their people in their hands. They can no longer afford to standby while lawlessness and anarchy reigns supreme in their region due largely to inaction and opposition to innovations by the national leadership. That is the kind of outcome you get when genuine innovations are not allowed to see the light of the day largely on account of some inexplicable and self-serving considerations.

    At the point we are, it will not serve any useful purpose picking holes with Operation Amotekun. This is more so as the police high echelon was taken into confidence in the setting up of the outfit. The question to ask is whether there is merit in what the security outfit is set to achieve. If the answer is yes, then the right approach is to pool minds together and fashion out more effective approaches to make it succeed.

    At any rate, such security platforms are nothing new. They exist in parts of the country and have made invaluable contributions to the relative peace we have. The fight against Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast was enhanced by the incorporation of the civilian population and many states currently maintain vigilante outfits that regularly complement the operations of the security agencies. The only innovation in Operation Amotekun is its regional outlook driven by the imperative of trans-border cooperation. It is a child of necessity!

  • Shehu Sani’s situation

    By Femi Macaulay

    Shehu Sani’s antecedents make it difficult to believe the allegations that the vocal ex-senator, who represented Kaduna Central in the last Senate, is a name-dropper and bribe-giver.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said: “Sani is currently facing criminal investigation, and he is being detained by the EFCC in very conducive environment, based on a valid court order…Sani has questions to answer as regards the alleged involvement in name-dropping, and particularly that he obtained $25,000 from Alhaji Sani Dauda, the ASD Motors boss, in order to help shield him from investigations being carried out by the EFCC.”

    But Sani’s aide, Suleiman Ahmed, said the EFFC’s claim about Sani’s detention environment was far from the truth, and that the said detention environment was far from being “very conducive.”  Ahmed was quoted as saying on a radio show that Sani was detained “for more than 10 days in an underground cell, which, whenever he will be given food, we have to call some people from the top before he could be given food.”

    Ahmed repeated these allegations in a newspaper interview. The repeated allegations showed Ahmed was serious and wanted the allegations to be taken seriously. He said: “Initially, there was a lot of intimidation because in the first five days of his arrest, whenever food was taken to him, we would be made to wait for several hours till somebody at the top gives the order for clearance. Due to this, he doesn’t eat on time. Sometimes, he gets his breakfast at 11am or 12 while he gets his lunch at 4pm. That is why his family resolved to give him food twice a day. So, does this have to do with extortion?”

    Are Ahmed’s allegations true? It’s a cause for concern that Sani was said to have been subjected to harsh detention conditions by the EFCC. The EFCC has a lot of explaining to do, beyond just saying that Sani is being detained in a “very conducive environment.” Sani is being investigated for alleged extortion, but that’s no reason he should be treated in the manner described by Ahmed. Indeed, it’s scandalous that an EFCC detainee was said to have been subjected to the detention conditions described by Ahmed.

    The EFCC shouldn’t have detention centres where detainees are kept in inhumane conditions, no matter why such detainees are in detention.  The 14-day detention order to investigate, which the commission obtained on January 2, wasn’t meant to expose the detainee to cruel conditions.    Ahmed’s picture of Sani’s detention conditions is bad for the EFCC’s image, and suggests there’s more to his detention than meets the eye.

    Significantly, Sani had said in a statement: ”If the consortium of the government, EFCC and my accuser has any evidence in form of audio, video, cheque, draft or money transfer for their spurious, fabricated bribe, they should make it public by publishing it instead of issuing statements.

    “I strongly, boldly, unambiguously, and explicitly maintain, assert, affirm that the allegations against me are … lies.”

    During his Senate years from 2015 to 2019, Sani had hit the headlines with his disclosure that every senator got N13.5m for running costs monthly, in addition to their salaries. Before his revelation, the public was clueless about how much the country’s senators got for their work.

    Sani had said: “But because of this culture of secrecy and silence, people who found themselves in the National Assembly are criminalised and stigmatised. The dome of the National Assembly is being seen to house people of questionable character and integrity. So, what I did was to rescue the honour and credibility of the parliament by removing the veil of secrecy to bring it once and for all to an end.”

    He got it right by exposing things. But he got it wrong by thinking that it would help to show the senators in a good light.  Revealing what the senators got, which had been kept secret for so long, showed the Senate’s dirty underbelly.

    According to Sani,   “Everybody collects this money, but the rule is that when you collect, you keep quiet…I will continue to collect as others are collecting too, until there is a law or there is an adjustment to say we should collect half of what we now collect.

    “I will continue to collect because I am not collecting it for myself. I am collecting it for my people…The good thing is that the Senate has been courteous to me because as soon as I said it, the spokesperson of the Senate confirmed it… And for now, there has been no sanction. I don’t know whether tomorrow or next there will be. I tried to make my colleagues to understand, though many don’t want to…”

    He added:  ”To even open up is a monumental step… For me, I believe I have done my own best… The next step is for pressure to come from Nigerians.”

    Sani is well known for being outspoken. Indeed, it is believed he is in trouble because of his blunt comments on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration last December.  He was quoted as saying on Invicta FM Radio’s Hausa programme , Kai kadai gayya: “ If you give this present government 50 more years to rule, this is how the masses will suffer for those 50 years…This government doesn’t have any other song except blaming the past government. The issue should be: what have you done since assumption of office?”

    Sani also said: “This hardship that Nigerians are even experiencing is a joke compared to what would be happening in this coming year and beyond, because the measures the government is taking are not measures to bring succour to the masses, but to increase power for the powerful and increase hardship for the masses.”

    Is Sani a name-dropper and bribe-giver as the EFCC alleged?  Are the allegations “politically motivated” as he alleged?

  • Bottling the leopard

    “A leopard shall watch over your cities…” Jeremiah 5:6

    Two major episodes in Yoruba history may place in context the Amotekun imbroglio. One happened in the 19th century and the other in the 1960’s. The first was a theatre of blood and brawn. The second was a rhetoric bluster. The first did not materialise  under the public glare, but it was significant because it flared beneath the public eye. It occurred during the early embers of the civil war before hostilities paralysed what was known as Nigeria.

    An eyewitness and player, retired Major Raphael Iluyomade, related this story to this newspaper in his Ibadan home a few years back. On hand to interview him were myself, Femi Macaulay, Oladele and Hannah Ojo. Here are excerpts.

    “The barracks here in Mokola was the Third Infantry Battalion. So, the northerners were harassing the Yoruba because it was one of the wishes of Ojukwu that every soldier should go back to his own state of origin: the Midwesterners should go to the Midwest and the Yoruba people should stay in Ibadan. The northerners should go to the north so as to accomplish the Aburi convention requested by Ojuwku.

    So, when every soldier is in his own state of origin, Ojuwku would be confident to come and have a meeting with General Gowon. They (northern soldiers) refused to go. And by that time, there were threats to Yoruba officers by the Hausa/Fulani, particularly myself, because the battalion commander then, Major Sotomi, didn’t know what to do. Every now and then, he would call me to go and speak to the Hausa soldiers. I didn’t want to use the wrong word. So I would go there and talk to them as directed. They refused. They would say no. So, every day, they were arming themselves with rifles and ammunition inside.

    Q: You mean the Hausa/Fulani soldiers?

    Yes. They were carrying ammunition with weapons, which meant that if any war broke out, they were at advantage, and they could shoot the whole of us.

    Q: Who was giving them instructions? Were they reporting to their immediate officers?

    They were becoming unruly and they were not listening to instructions, except it was from their own people.

    Q: Which officers do you think were giving them instructions from the higher command?

    There was one Captain Bugaji, who was the adjutant of the battalion. He was a pure northerner. He himself disappeared during the war. He was one of the people captured, and we can’t trace his whereabouts any more. There was a day Gen. Hassan Usman Katsina came to Ibadan to speak to the troops. The governor of the Western Region, Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo, was with him. Some people from the army headquarters in Lagos were also with him. They did not allow any journalist to enter the compound. Then he spoke to us in a bad and undiplomatic way. He said that the (Hausa/Fulani) soldiers would not leave Ibadan and that if they were threatened, he would use 40 soldiers to defeat the Yoruba.

    So, he boasted and boasted, saying, ‘Give me the green light, I’m going to produce Ojukwu himself.’ He hammered on that. He came with two other officers. Three Yoruba officers were there myself, Makanjola, who is no more now, and Col. John Adedipe, who is still alive. He lives at Iwo Road (Ibadan). What type of threat to a whole nation by a single man? We looked at ourselves and said we were done for, if we didn’t do anything or if our leaders didn’t do anything.

    But Chief Awolowo was in Lagos. Maybe he heard what happened. And that was the only man we trusted. That was the only man. The military governor then, Adeyinka Adebayo, was (shaking his wrist) you understand what I mean?

    Q: You mean he was afraid?

    He was perturbed. He didn’t know what to do except to report what had happened. But Gen. Usman Katsina came to Ibadan, maybe with the permission of Gen. Gowon, who was the head of state then. Maybe he took permission from him to say what he said, nobody knew. As I said, I was a full lieutenant, so a junior officer. But I have every detail in my head, and that’s what I’m reproducing today.

    Q: Were the soldiers of northern extraction more in number?

    They were more in number because the infantry soldiers, those who carry guns, those who fight the real battles, were predominantly northerners. The soldiers of Yoruba origin and those who came from other parts of the country were clerks, medical men, administrators and supply and transport officers in the petrol depot. So, when they ran away from the north, I was the one that trained them and converted them into infantry men, so that if there was a threat, they had to fight. I taught them the way to handle the rifle, tactics and a lot of things. I was the one nominated to train them, and I really did. The intimidation by Usmam Katsina could be considered an affront to the Yoruba.”

    The other incident happened during the advance of the soldiers of Uthman Dan Fodio, who wanted to spread its tentacles to Yorubaland. Ilorin had been sacked, and Oyo Ile, the old Oyo capital, also dislodged, and that put the whole race under the shadow of an occupying army. The Fulani invaders were a cavalry, rumbling from village to village, kingdom to kingdom and pillaging its way to victory and glory. The date of their infamy was 1840 when the Yoruba, led by the fierce republican ethos of Ibadan with an infantry force with men of valour and cunning, entrapped the invading force. They enfeebled foreigners in a night massacre that put paid to any imperial fantasies by the otherwise redoubtable thrusts. The masterstroke of an army now suffered a stroke from the indigenes.

    These scenarios were unnecessary. In the first instance, the Yoruba worked with the Hausa/Fulani to win a war of unity. The Yoruba provided the brain of the war, if the north the footmen. In the second example, the Dan Fodio’s army could have retained its myth of the invincible if it had left the west alone. One can only speculate what turn the civil war or the Nigerian crisis would have taken if Major General Katsina’s words leaked to the public domain. In spite of the inflammations of temper, it is best to leave well enough alone. Let the leopard growl in peace. Amotekun is now a state of mind, which is more potent than an institution. Unlike the quiescence of General Hassan’s insolence, Amotekun is a public spill.  No proud race wants to be a bystander and spectator of its own humiliation.

    Men like Abubakar Malami know little of history but carry their lofty tasks with juvenile fervor. As the attorney general, he ought to learn a thing or two about the purpose of law and, more importantly, the maturity of public office. He also needs to know his society and read the newspapers, so he can avail himself of facts that are commonplace. We need to educate him, for instance, that we have a similar force called Hisbah with an aggressive police. We all also applauded the civilian JTF that worked when our army was limping in the battlefield when they were not fleeing like rabbits. He probably didn’t know that before his uncoordinated balderdash of a press release.

    Amotekun is not, and has never been projected as a sovereign force. It is a cooperative entity as part of the federal infrastructure of security. We saw cowardice when the inspector General of Police endorsed it with his presence and retreated afterwards. The Southwest governors did not only do a good thing; they performed a worthy feat. To say Amotekun is illegal is to throw the law at vigilantes, or even my mai guard because it implies I have taken my security away from the federal government. How puerile can it be.

    In his allegory, our beloved novelist Chukwuemeka Ike told the story of a bottled leopard to show how the beast in us can come from cultural misunderstanding. What has happened with Malami is less about law but more about cultural and hegemonic mischief. The Yoruba leopard is not here to growl for a secessionist lamb. Its targets are hoodlums, marauding herdsmen, kidnappers, et al. Rather than bottle the Yoruba leopard, why not sit at table over fura and amala. One will help the other travel through.

  • Pick of the Year

    Sam Omatseye

     

    HE was no general. He was no Charles de Gaulle, the charismatic French upstart, who rebelled against the army that providence later appointed him to command. Nor was he Patton, the brash impresario, who was himself a theatre as soldier who brushed through the bloody fields of Europe during the Second World War.

    Hamza S. Buba was a humble warrior, a Nigerian soldier, who died and fought in northeastern Nigeria in obedience to the martial impulse of his calling and his fierce disdain for the sectarian terror that the Boko Haram cult emblematised. Above all, he kitted himself for battle to heed his nation’s jolt to duty.

    We heard in the course of last year of soldiers who fell, of those who complained of neglect and lack of nourishment. But he was not glorified but one who gloried in his duty.

    His story had a sense of foreboding. Every soldier knows death beckons in battle. Survival depends for most part on God and the law of averages. Buba knew he might not come back. He did not lament about it.

    Here is his message that shook Twitter and Facebook: “If I die in a war zone, box me up and send me home.” That must be a message for his bosses and his country. He was not going to rage against the dying of his light, a la poet Dylan Thomas. He was not going to think of what life might be, of the wife he would marry, the luxury he would exhale, the children that would nest his home. He was a soldier happy with the thrill of combat for his country, a professional giving his task the full throttle of his devotion.

    He only asks one thing of his country while he passed on: “Put my medal on my chest.” He coveted honour. And as a good son, he had these words for his parents. “Tell my mom I did my best.” To his father he transmits a cryptic message, though. “Tell my dad not to bow, he won’t get tension from me now.” What tension? Was father too hopeful of son’s soldiery or loathed his escapade of no escape? We may never know. But Buba never wavered in the dustbowl of war.

    He had words for his siblings, too. “Tell my bro to study perfectly; key of my car will be his permanently.” From his writings, he studied as example. He was no crank-head fighter. To his sister, he simply urges calm. “Her bro will take a long sleep after sunset.”

    Buba has a word for us his fellow compatriots. “Tell my nation not to cry, because I am a sold

    ier born to die, but never to be forgotten.” He was a soldier-poet, a lyricist of his own triumph in tragedy, who had a soul for martyrdom and heart for country.

    The paradox is painful. He died in a war where the army, as Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum reported, is a place for profiteers and extortion. Their generals get billions as allocation and the war still festers, so great soldiers like Buba die. Buba talked of sacrifice when our political elite plundered our resources with impunity.

    2019 was a year where people loved families and not society, professions for profits, tribes instead of country. He cherished all and paid with his life. Buba’s rank was not published. The chief of army staff probably does not know him.  He was a warrior that represented a few who walk the narrow path of honour and integrity in Nigeria.

    For giving his only treasure for country when others fattened and took flight, soldier Buba is In Touch Person of the Year.

     

     

    Comeback person: Sylva Bullets

    WHEN 2019 began, not many thought he was going to figure in the headlines. He was a governor tucked aside into the shadows. In 2015, he was to be minister but decided to light the battle torch in the creeks for a governorship duel. It did not come his way. Since then, he had been quiet. Some thought he was done. Ebenezer Obey sang, won se bolatan – they think his prosperity is finished.

    Timipre Sylva had other things going. What the Igbos would call his chi. Fortune first made him minist

    er. A group wanted him overlooked for the meaty prize: he won. He became the oil minister.  He was not done. Next stop Bayelsa. He returned to the scene of the crime committed against him in 2015.

    Rallying behind David Lyon, his party beat the PDP for the first time since 1999. It was a double victory for 2019. He was the revenant of the year, a man who came back from the dead.

    He Ruined

    ANTHONY Joshua never had a chance the first time. His second chance seemed impossible. But he triumphed. He punched his way from the dead to regain his title as the numero uno of boxing. An oak of a ma

    n, Joshua is my sports person of the year. Ushered into the ring on the riffs and lyrics of fela’s Water no get enemy, he asserted his Nigerian provenance as he ruined Ruiz in a pugilist warfare to be remembered for a long time.

     

     

    My book

    FEW remember Benjamin O. Tietie, the evangelist and former vice president of the God’s Kingdom Society, who later left the GKS to found the God’s Kingdom Mission before he passed on. He published his memoirs, 50 years in Christ’s Ministry, before his death. I picked up a copy last year and read it with zest. The book captured my mind, not because it tells the history of how churches were founded, which was absorbing. Or some of the contentions of colonial Nigeria, which was also riveting. But it clarified for me the crisis that led to his parting with the GKS, which was a dynamic organization at that time, especially from its founding up to the 1980’s.

    Tietie’s account tells one how a family can collapse over a collision of egos and insular pursuits. In the process, the larger vision looms and crumbles before everyone’s eyes. It is a cautionary tale for all who start organisations, secular or pious, and Tietie’s story illuminated darker regions of my mind now because, in the throes of the crisis, I only heard one side of the story. The leaders pivoted only one narrative that demonized the rebels. Like in most tumultuous episodes, the truth is more nuanced than that.

    Tietie remains the best preacher I ever saw, heard or encountered in my life. He was a supreme exponent of scripture with great elocution, a fluty voice and profound subtlety. Today, I will give that credit to T.D jakes, who is the best dissector of the word of prophecy – The Bible – living and preaching today.

     

  • Abuse of the siren

    Emeka Omeihe

     

    THE decision by the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) to commence immediate arrest and prosecution of abusers of sirens and convoys is welcome. But, its implementation may prove herculean given the ambiguity that surrounds the interpretation of those entitled to their use. This reality inexorably exposes some of the ills holding down this country from taking its proper position within the committee of nations.

    Corps Marshall of the Commission, Boboye Oyeyemi said the decision was informed by the realization that most abusers of convoys and sirens are not government officials but private individuals who are not authorized to their use. The commission intends to work with the police to ensure that offenders are prosecuted and given appropriate punishments to serve as deterrent to others.

    In carrying out this task, the FRSC will have to contend with the proper interpretation and application of the rules guiding those entitled to the use of sirens and convoys. This is especially so, given that many of our government functionaries and public office holders who currently bestrode our roads and highways with menacing impunity are not even entitled to its use. The first assignment of the commission, if it must succeed in this new assignment will be to give proper interpretation to those allowed by our laws to use sirens and convoys. With that, it will now be in a proper stead to confront the menace.

    The National Roads Traffic Regulation NRTR specifically spelt out those entitled to the use of the siren. Section 154 states that “No person other than the president of the  Federal Republic of Nigeria, Vice President, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Deputy president of the Senate,  Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, governors and deputy governor of states shall drive a vehicle on any public road using sirens, flashers or beacon lights”.  The regulation also stipulates punishment for any driver or vehicle that knowingly obstructs those entitled to sirens as well as its abuse by unauthorized persons.

    But we have had situations when the police issued directives expanding the category of persons entitled to its use. At least, two Inspectors-General of Police had in the past come up with their own versions of those entitled to the use of sirens. While one of them expanded the scope over and above the stipulations of the NRTR, the other had something very close to the regulations.   That may account for why sundry public officials including ministers, heads of military, paramilitary and ancillary organizations now use the siren.

    All the same, it is good a thing the commission has been so sufficiently challenged by the spate of lawlessness on our roads often compounded by the use of sirens and convoys that it decided to confront the scourge. Road users, especially during festive periods have had to contend with the menace of all manner of persons using convoys and sirens.

    And as should be expected, the multiplicity of these convoys and sirens raise questions as to the number of persons entitled to their use. Apart from the army of those who use convoys and siren to chase and intimidate innocent road uses out of the roads, the manner some of them have carried on has become a great source of concern to the public.

    It is a standard practice for certain categories of public functionaries and those in some special services to use sirens in cases of emergency. That is also the case here. Sadly, that privilege has not only been brazenly abused in this country but exploited by all manner of persons to achieve self-serving ends. What it now takes in this country for someone to begin using the siren is the acquisition of one or two Toyota Hilux vans or similar brands fitted with the alarm systems. While some of such people proceed further to procure the services of one or two police escorts, there are a handful of others that do not. It is commonplace to see lone drivers on our highways and streets blaring siren even when there is nothing necessitating its use. What of the harassment and intimidation of road users?

    Even then, these convoys (many of them illegal) have had very negative effects on free flow of traffic. The indiscriminate manner they drive against traffic at the slightest traffic delay is one of the major sources of the gridlock on our roads. There are also instances of serious accidents arising from the indiscriminate manner some of these convoy operators have carry on.

    Ironically and in the face of this abuse, the government appears not to have mustered sufficient courage to stem the tide. It is therefore heart-warming that the FRSC has taken up the matter with the appropriate authorities and drastic action will now be taken to stem the tide.

    We endorse the observation of the commission that the “abuse of convoys and sirens are an abuse of freedom of movement and intimidation to road users and citizens across the country and this act must stop”.

    But this is not the first time the authorities would be expressing misgivings about the indiscriminate use of sirens and convoys by unauthorized persons. We have had such promises in the past without concrete results. This seemed to have emboldened all manner of characters to embark on a bazaar of acquiring vehicles fitted with sirens. For the new move to succeed, the authorities must first regulate the ease with which all manner of persons acquire siren fitted vehicles and secure the services of police escorts. The rules must be clearly spelt out on those who can move on our roads with such vehicles and the conditions for it.

    For a country buffeted from all angles by all manner of security challenges, it is mortal risk allowing the indiscriminate use of sirens go on this way. Given the ease with which they move on our roads (some of them with their number plates covered), there is little doubt that they have become a source of serious security challenge. Evil minded persons: kidnappers, armed robbers, bandits and terrorists could find comfort in convoys and sirens to perpetrate their heinous acts and escape the prying eyes of law enforcement agencies. This danger is real and we can only toy with it at the risk of the escalation of the deteriorating security challenges in parts of the country. So it is the overall interest of the country that something very drastic and result-oriented is done to stem the madness which the use of sirens and convoys have become especially in some parts of the country.

    Behind the indiscriminate use of sirens by persons not authorized to its use is issue of ego and ostentation. We are contending with a people who want to be noticed; people who want to show off and intimidate others even when they have nothing to offer. We are dealing with a population that revels in self-gratification, personality cult and pleasure-seeking. That is the culture of underdevelopment, a vicious cycle that will continue to vitiate efforts by this country to take its proper place within the comity of nations despite its huge endowments by nature.

    The FRSC may mean well. But unless it gets the cooperation of the presidency and the National Assembly to enforce extant regulations on the issue, its new resolve may go the way of those before it. It may be able to rein in some of the private persons- businessmen, traders and the army of former office holders who regularly abuse the siren. But a majority of those in contempt of the siren are public office holders at the national and state level excluded from it by extant regulations. The solution lies in strict compliance with the NRTR stipulations. That is the challenge.

     

  • Mystical money

    Femi Macaulay

     

     

    MONEY rituals are mysteries, and trying to understand them requires a mental leap from the physical world to the metaphysical realm. If there is a metaphysical world beyond the physical world, then it is possible that there are invisible powers that can be invoked to bring money.

    It’s not surprising that physicalists argue that there’s nothing like money rituals. They need to go beyond physicalism to see that possibility.  The debate about money rituals, reignited by the murder of Favour Daley-Oladele, 22, a Lagos State University (LASU) final-year Theatre Arts student, at Ikoyi-Ile in Osun State, deserves attention.

    An Apomu Magistrates’ Court in Osun State on January 10 ordered that ‘Pastor’ Philip Segun, 42, Owolabi Adeeko, 23, and his mother, Bola, 46, who allegedly killed Favour, be remanded in a correctional centre at Ilesa, Osun State, The police charged them with two counts of murder and conspiracy.

    Owolabi’s chilling confession showed not only desperation but also bestiality: “I called Favour on December 8, 2019, to meet me at Ikoyi-Ile so we could spend some time together. She met me at a hotel in the area, but immediately she got there, she started complaining that she was tired and needed to rest.

    “I told her that we needed to visit my dad’s younger brother before she would rest. It was a lie. I tricked her into going to the church of Segun. When we got to the church, again, she complained that she wanted to sleep, so, I asked her to go into the church and rest.

    “When she slept off, I used a pestle to smash her in the head and she died. After we confirmed she was dead, Pastor Segun slaughtered her and removed the vital organs from her body so that they could be used for the ritual we wanted to perform to make money.”

    He said his accomplice “used a knife and cutlass to dismember her body which was divided into three parts, breasts, head and legs with other vital parts.

    “We buried the remaining part of her body beside Prophet Philip’s Church called ‘Solution Salvation Chapel’, while some vital parts were given to my mother to eat for spiritual cleansing.”

    The police said:  “Owolabi explained that he decided to go into money ritual because things were not going well with his parents financially, especially his mother who used to be the family breadwinner. And when he sought assistance from the pastor, he was asked to bring a human being for that purpose and the available person at that time was his girlfriend.”

    Owolabi’s collaborator said he “came to my place for money rituals and I told him that we need a complete human being for the rituals.” He was quoted as saying he wanted to try out what he had read in the Seventh Book of Moses.  When Favour’s remains were exhumed during the investigation, her head, breasts, neck and parts of her legs were missing.

    It’s interesting that the pastor referred to the Seventh Book of Moses, described as “arguably one of the most popular magick books ever published.” The mention of this book shows that Favour’s murder had metaphysical dimensions. “The book consists of a collection of texts, which claim to explain the magick Moses used to win the biblical magick contest with the Egyptian priest-magicians, part the Red Sea, and perform other miraculous feats,” according to a description.

    “It includes instruction in the form of invocations, magick words, and seals for calling upon the angels to affect worldly ends, from the sublime (calling down a plague of locusts and frogs upon your enemy) to the mundane (getting more money). Many manuscripts and printed pamphlet versions circulated in Germany in the 1800s, and an English translation by Johann Scheible first appeared in New York in 1880.”

    Those who wonder why the pastor who claimed to be able to make Owolabi rich couldn’t make himself  rich, and why he charged  so little for such a big job, miss the point. He may well be a fraud.

    Favour’s murder is a sensational crime similar to another sensational crime that had something to do with money rituals not long ago. Money was reportedly at the root of the murder for which then 27-year-old Adeyemi Seidu got a death sentence on March 27, 2019.  The circumstances of the murder suggested it was a money-ritual killing prompted by a get-rich-quick mentality.

    Justice Samuel Bola of an Ondo State High Court, sitting in Akure, found Adeyemi guilty of killing his girlfriend, Khadijat Oluboyo, in July 2018.  Khadijat was in her twenties and a final-year student of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, when she was killed by Adeyemi, a graduate in Quantity Surveying, Federal University of Technology, Akure.  Khadijat was the daughter of a former deputy governor of Ondo State.

    According to the autopsy report, “there was an abnormal shaving of the hair on the deceased head and the pubic region while her two upper front teeth had been broken off leaving only some fragments left.” This aspect of the report seemed to give credence to suspicion that the killing was ritualistic. Adeyemi was said to have buried her corpse in his room in Akure for five days.

    How Khadijat died showed she was a victim of brutish violence. The autopsy report said:   ”There were fractures on the bones of her neck, shoulder along with her second to the sixth ribs on both sides, a dislocation of her hip joints with another fracture on the upper part of her thigh. The injuries could not have been self-inflicted but given by another party and inflicted with a significant pressure especially the upper thigh region which had a lot of muscles. There were lacerations on her chest which damaged two major vessels known as the femoral artery and vein that circulate blood in the body. The combined effects of the injuries led to Khadijat’s death.”

    The murder trial was concluded in less than a year.  In Favour’s case, justice should also be delivered in reasonable time. The money-ritual angle says something about our society.  There are frequent reports of suspected money-ritual killings across the country, showing a dark side of the society. Murder is evil; it is even more so when it is connected with a get-rich-quick idea.

    There may well be people who got rich through money rituals. Only failed attempts usually hit the headlines.  Those who become rich through money rituals are unlikely to publicise the source of their wealth.

    The point is not whether money rituals work, but that the love of money should never be taken to extremes.

     

  • Citizen Favour Oladele

    By Emeka Omeihe

    The cruel murder of a 400-level female student of the Lagos State University, Favour Daley-Oladele for ritual purposes has exposed all that is wrong with our society. The despicable manner of her killing is bound to offend the sensibilities of even the most callous.

    That accounted for the strong condemnations and opprobrium that trailed the incident. But for the pacification by the authorities of that institution, the outrage that trailed the killing could have snowballed to students’ unrest with outcomes that could have disrupted public peace.

    According to reports, the girl who had visited her parents and was about to return to school had a sudden phone call. Unknown to her parents, the call was from her boyfriend and instead of returning to school, she made straight to see him at the designated place.

    But that decision was to be the greatest mistake of her life. She did not know that her supposed boyfriend had perfected devious plans to kill her on that day. The supposed boyfriend, 23-year old Adeeko Owolabi who was said to be an ex-student of the same university, apparently propelled by vaulting ambition had connived  with a white garment self-acclaimed pastor, Segun Philips to murder her for money making ritual purposes.

    He lured Favor to a hotel where he drugged her. Having achieved his ill plan of getting his victim in a state of unconsciousness, Owolabi then took her to his accomplice pastor’s church where he smashed her head with a pestle given to him by the pastor leading to Favour’s instant death. The rest that followed exposed the bestiality, brutality and animalistic instincts of the said pastor.

    They were waiting for the transformation to overnight rich people when the bubble burst. The police tracked them down to their evil location and arrested them courtesy of modern technology. They all confessed to their crimes. But for the good job done by the police; the parents of Favour who had been searching frantically for her for days, would never have come to terms with the circumstances of her mysterious disappearance.

    Favour is not alone in the rising incidents of missing persons, many of which have remained largely mysterious. But for the tracking of her phone to that evil location, we may never have got to know that ritual killing propelled by the get-rich-quick syndrome that has afflicted our society was behind it all. It is sad that the belief that killing of humans for rituals could lead to opulence is fast gaining traction within our society.

    Or how else do we rationalize that 23-year old Owolabi could easily succumb to the notion that he can become rich overnight through ritual killing and had to kill his girlfriend for that purpose? That is how bad the matter has degenerated. And it is a potent danger our society is currently confronted with. It would appear the ranks of those swayed by such weird beliefs are swelling by the day. The society is obviously at great risk if nothing is done to check the increasing class of young people who are attracted to the nation that killing people for rituals could lead to instant wealth.

    It is time to dig deep into that festering obnoxious notion and practice. We need to really ask questions regarding the veracity of the claims that using human parts for rituals leads to the acquisition of power and wealth. They are mundane practices and beliefs that lack empirical verification. That ipso facto, lends them to intense research. Getting to the root of it all may prove difficult given the very surreptitious manner they are carried out.

    But the reality that we live with them daily and many of our young ones are increasingly lured into such beliefs should instruct we cannot but interrogate the phenomenon. We cannot afford to dismiss the trend with a wave of the hand. It is systemic challenge any responsible government must confront if anything, to save the army of those increasingly lured into such beliefs. The said pastor who claimed to possess the powers to make people rich through ritual killings demanded N250, 000 before his voodoo chambers could do the magic and got N210, 000. If he had such powers to make people rich overnight, what business does he have asking for N250, 000?

    For a person that possesses such supernatural powers, the minimum expectation is that he should have converted them to help himself first. In order words, he should have first made himself very rich. But he is not rich. That is why he still demanded that paltry sum. What an irony! Curiously also, the likes of Owolabi could not read between the lines to decode the duplicity in the entire arrangement. And he has ended up stuffing life out of an innocent girl and ended up very badly.

    There is the urgent need for conversation at various levels on this subject matter with the government taking the lead. Ritual killings have become such a threat to human existence that our governments cannot sit idly and allow the ugly practice to fester. It is not just enough for the police to arrest and prosecute the culprits. It is not sufficient that those caught are jailed or even made to pay the supreme sacrifice.

    The situation calls for conscious and concerted efforts by the various levels of governments to dig deeper into the phenomenon. Those arrested for such offences should be made to show the public evidence of their supernatural powers to make people rich overnight. In the case at hand, Philips should be brought to the public domain to demonstrate evidence of the claims he made to Owolabi that led him to kill his girlfriend. We will like to know if he really has such powers. If yes, he should demonstrate them and explain why he still demanded money before he could activate his voodoo chambers.

    The way he goes about this, will make a lot of impression on the very impressionable segments of our society that are easy victims of such bogus claims. Besides, there should by sensitization seminars and ancillary conversations to interrogate the notion that ritual killings lead to quick wealth.

    Just recently, we had a similar interrogation of the notion of witchcraft. The Prof. B.I.C Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies and Research of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka held an international conference to explore the notion of witchcraft. Though there were initial complaints as to the real intentions of its organizers, the conference still came out on a very positive note. Key discussants were unanimous that witchcraft only existed in the figment of the imaginations of the gullible.

    In order words, there is nothing like witchcraft even as sundry pastors and preachers regularly deploy such non-verifiable notions to hoodwink and hold their gullible members hostage for self-serving reasons. Not unexpectedly, many families have been torn apart by allegations and counter allegations of witchcraft even when they lack empirical evidence of its occurrence. There have also been many instances of killings based on phony allegations of the same phenomenon.

    Just as the centre interrogated witchcraft, the next attention should be focused on ritual killings. At a time technological innovations are in vogue, it is really disconcerting that the superior powers we crave for here are in the areas of the mundane, occult and voodoo. These issues must be interrogated for us to make real progress.

  • Ayade and Emmanuel

    By Femi Macaulay

    Why has Agba Jalingo, a journalist and publisher of Crossriverwatch, been in detention since last August? More than four months after he was arrested, he remains caged at a correctional centre in Calabar, Cross River State.

    According to the Secretary, Association of Cross River Online Journalists, Jeremiah Archibong, “Agba Jalingo’s sin was his story that asked the state government to explain how N500m that was purportedly allocated to the Cross River State Microfinance Bank was disbursed.”

    Archibong’s account of how Jalingo was arrested, and the sequence of events that followed his arrest, discredits the Governor Ben Ayade administration:  “I feel sad because it is disheartening to know that a case like this can go on and on without any headway. How can a government deny knowledge of this when on August 16, 2019, he received a letter from the Police in the state inviting him for an explanation on August 19. He was in Lagos engaged in other things but explained to them that the August 19 date was not feasible.

    “However, there was an agreement reached, but before the agreed date, he was arrested on August 22. The manner he was arrested was worrisome because the police team they sent from Cross River to Lagos to arrest him (Jalingo) alleged that he was being arrested as a kidnap suspect. They told him in the presence of his wife that he was a kidnapper who was wanted in Calabar.

    “They took him from Lagos to Calabar by road with handcuffs on his hands and chains on his legs. On August 28, the state microfinance bank filed a charge against him (Jalingo) in a Cross River State High Court. It clearly showed that the state government had a hand in his arrest and detention. The state government has consistently denied knowledge of his arrest and detention, claiming that it was the Federal Government that arrested him…

    “The judge handling the matter denied him bail. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria who was handling the case begged the judge to release Jalingo to him; the judge also turned the request down… Suddenly he is being charged with terrorism and an attempt to topple the state government.”

    If this account is true, then the Ayade administration has a lot of explaining to do. It is noteworthy that the Ayade administration made an effort to shed light on Jalingo’s detention through a response to a critical article. However, the attempted clarification by Chidi Onyemaizu, Senior Special Assistant on Print Media to Governor Ayade, wasn’t clarifying.

    According to Onyemaizu, Jalingo’s “charge sheet…clearly exculpates Governor Ayade of complicity in his (Agba Jalingo) treason case….This is because the matter in court does not have the imprimatur of the governor but that of the federal government.”

    Onyemaizu stated: “No less a person than Barrister Inibehe Effiong, the National Legal Adviser of Agba Jalingo’s party, the AAC, has reiterated this clearly and poignantly.”

    He quoted Effiong: “First, the charges against Jalingo (treason, terrorism) are essentially federal offences (based on an Act of the National Assembly).

    “He was not charged under the Criminal Code Law of Cross River State but under the Criminal Code Act Cap. C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and under the Terrorism (Prevention Amendment) Act 2013.

    “Second, he is being tried in the Federal High Court, not Cross River State High Court.

    “Third, the charge was filed in the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; not in the name of the Cross River State of Nigeria.

    “No State in Nigeria can institute a criminal charge against any person in the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Fourth, the Attorney General of Cross River State cannot enter a nolle prosequi (cannot discontinue the case). Only the Attorney General of the Federation can do so.”

    It is unclear why Jalingo is charged with treason and terrorism.  The Federal Government needs to clarify the situation. The Ayade administration needs to clarify its role in the arrest of Jalingo, considering Archibong’s detailed account of how the arrest was carried out and the alleged involvement of the Cross River State Police Command.

    In Akwa Ibom State, which was created from the old Cross River State, 21-year-old Michael Itok was granted bail by Akwa Ibom High Court 4 last December, after spending more than 60 days in detention.

    His lawyer, Imo Akpan, said: “There is just one charge against him, which is based on internal security and enforcement of the law of Akwa Ibom State. He was charged under Section 6 with activities that constitute a nuisance because of some Facebook posts, which the governor considers as a nuisance. In that case, Governor Udom Emmanuel is the complainant in respect of the charge.”

    Itok, the marketing officer of Prudential Micro Finance Bank, was arrested and detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) on October 8 till November 26 last year when he was arraigned before Magistrate Grade II under the Akwa Ibom Internal Security and Enforcement Law. He was in prison custody before he was granted bail.

    It is curious that the state government, represented by the Attorney General, Uwemedimo Nwoko, opposed Itok’s bail application on the grounds that he “may jump bail” since there was a pending charge against him at the magistrates’ court.

    According to Itok’s lawyer, “He was arraigned on November 26 at a Magistrates’ Court in Fulga, Uyo…You can’t keep somebody away for almost 48 days and then, all of a sudden, you take him to a court that lacks jurisdiction, knowing that the judge or magistrate will say, ‘I don’t have the jurisdiction, go and wait in custody, pending the advice of the Director of Public Prosecution in the Ministry of Justice.’

    Why did the Akwa Ibom State government engage in such rigmarole? What were the Facebook posts for which Itok was arrested and detained all about? “Some of the allegations against the governor are quite unprintable.  Michael Itok claimed that he was not the author of those posts, but he only shared them,” his lawyer said. The appropriate court should be allowed to perform its role.

    Governor Ayade and Governor Emmanuel need to convincingly show that these cases, which suggest their abuse of power, are not what they seem.