•Ogun thugs attack Trader Moni staff
Between February 9 and 18, Abeokuta experienced two disruptions at the instance of political hoodlums. The first took place at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential rally in the Ogun State capital, Abeokuta, at which thugs of Allied Peoples Movement (APM) threw objects at APC leaders on the podium at the party’s pre-election rally. The state governor, who is also the sponsor of APM, was heard begging the party members not to disgrace him before President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he referred to as the father of the state. In addition, members of APM chased out members of the party who dressed as supporters of APC. The unruly activities of the thugs at the rally cut short the ceremony.
Exactly a week after the show of shame at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta, about 40 hoodlums struck at the Lafenwa Market where Federal Government officials were collecting bio-data from market women at a registration by staff of Trader Moni Scheme. The scheme is part of the government’s social safety-net for poor citizens, under a larger anti-poverty programme —Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and the staff came on official assignment to the market.
Registration of women for no-interest N10,000 loan to increase their inventory was annulled by hoodlums who drove government officials and applicants away after arresting the female and male leaders of the market. The Chairman of Abeokuta North West Local Council Development Area (LCDA) who led the invaders, Monsuru Shorunke, confirmed that the order came from the governor of the state: “I was in front of the governor when we heard that some people came to Lafenwa Market and were collecting PVCs from the traders with their names and numbers. And the governor said we should go and find out. It was Governor Amosun that sent us …We took Iyaloja to the governor’s house along with the Babaloja of Lafenwa. We believe it was wrong for them to come and collect people’s PVCs with numbers before election day. That was what they came to do at Lafenwa.” But Governor Amosun has denied ordering his party men to disrupt activities of Trader Moni, a programme he has described as a well-structured one by the Federal Government.
While believing it is only an investigation that can determine the motivation for Amosun’s political associates to storm the market and chase away the staff of Trader Moni without collecting any evidence to confirm selling and buying of PVCs, we view disruption of registration of loan applicants as one illegal act too many. What is the source of the power delegated to APM hoodlums to chase out APC supporters of the gubernatorial candidate on February 11? Where did the governor or local government chairmen derive the authority to disrupt a legal activity of the government at Lafenwa on February 18? More importantly, which constitution gave local government chairmen the power to arrest and detain innocent citizens without proper warrant of arrest?
We are concerned about the arrogance and impunity on display at Lafenwa and condemn the actions of the governor’s associates as a brazen disregard for the country’s laws. Like the pelting of government leaders with various objects at the APC rally in Abeokuta one week earlier, the dispersal of government workers and market women on a legal assignment is an abuse of power by the chairman of Abeokuta North West Local Council Development Area and the hoodlums he led to Lafenwa. This is one barbaric action that should not have happened at any level of government.
Without doubt, storming the market and threatening innocent citizens constitute malicious acts capable of endangering the lives of citizens engaged in legal activities. We recommend that the perpetrators of the brutish acts, including the local government chairman who has freely confessed to coordinating the attacks at Lafenwa, are quickly identified and prosecuted. This unnecessary oppression of poor market women by men charged with protecting public order in Ogun State should not be swept under the carpet as acceptable pre-election frivolity.
We urge the Federal Government to investigate this impunity and bring those involved to justice. As there are enough security agencies in the country to protect the integrity of PVCs, local government chairmen and party thugs should not be encouraged to feel that it is normal for them to assume the power of police officers. Looking away from such thuggish acts at Lafenwa is capable of eroding confidence of citizens in the capacity of governments to maintain public safety and order.
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