For some time now, the rumour mill in the State of Osun has been unduly astir and agog with its worrisome pastime of tickling the ears of people with fantastic untruths. The emerging pattern appears to be that anytime the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola introduces any comprehensive people-oriented policy, those whose pseudo patriotism inspires to harvest defeat from the jaw of victory quickly move to town, spawning a web of lies to discredit the programme.
Few months ago, some local political irritants and their unconscionable federal sponsors sought in vain to make sense of their hollow claims that the governor had concluded plans to first Islamise the state and then secede using the services of the young men it had trained in Cuba. These accusations fell flat and their sponsors were soon put to shame.
The latest in this concatenation of ridiculous and reprehensible rumours concerns the activities of the joint security taskforce code-named Swift Action Squad (SAS), recently inaugurated by the state government to combat criminality and make the state unappealing to criminals of whatever pedigree. The objectionable gist in the current rumour making the rounds is that the men of this new security team are fashion police put in place by the government to deal with ladies who dress indecently, and to harass innocent citizens!
Of course, since the rumour began, not one of the many ladies so punished by men of the SAS for wearing “too sexy clothes” has come to validate the bland claim. Except in the waning and circumscribed imagination of the peddlers of the rumours, nobody has come forward with a shred of evidence to prove a case of harassment or act of impunity against the joint patrol team of security men.
In the version voyeuristically favoured by one Alabi Sodiq (circulated on some blogs and published in the September 4, edition of Thisday newspaper), it was claimed a young lady was “arrested” by SAS operatives on Saturday August 25, at Iwo. He claimed that the lady “was accused of wearing a top revealing her breast and the soldiers forced her to remove her top so as to totally reveal the breast she was ‘trying to flaunt’. Then, goes the story, a passing innocent Okada rider, who had no idea what was happening, was also stopped and asked by the soldiers to fondle the exposed breast of this young woman. The Okada man tried to turn down this offer and that’s a decision he would be regretting for a long time. He was mercilessly beaten and at the end he had to do as asked”.
On the surface, it appeared Sodiq was doing the right thing that any public-spirited, law-abiding citizen would do – calling the attention of the authorities to the unlawful actions of a security unit, more so that, in his claim, the information was not fictitious. But in truth, this was blatant disinformation meant to cause needless apprehension in the peaceful people of the state. Except that he saw a young girl running for whatever reason on sighting a patrol vehicle, every other thing in his boondoggle was a product of hearsay. Perhaps because he is alien to the culture of crosschecking the facts of his claims beyond any scintilla of doubt as any credible writer and well meaning citizen would have done, he unquestioningly accepted the hogwash he was told hook, line and sinker as gospel truth!
For those living in or visiting any part of Osun, it is very clear that all of the red security vehicles used by SAS have bold numbers inscribed on them, both front and back, for easy identification. The easiest thing for anybody who witnessed the wrongdoing of these security men to do is to take down the number and include it in their reports. But in the circulated reports against SAS, not one person – not even the seemingly observant Sodiq– has provided the vehicle number of the particular SAS unit that carried out the rumoured act. There has not even been any simple verbal description of the vehicle. Not one of the different versions of the wicked rumours gave a clear description of the actual place where the incident occurred. I have heard and read different places like Osogbo, Ile-Ife, and Iwo mentioned without any precise location within them identified as the place where passers-by witnessed the event.
Assuming I were ignorant of what the average Nigerians can do with their camera phones at the scene of a sordid event, I might not have bothered surfing the net for a video or picture from episode. However, since the story was a product of the fevered imagination of rumour-mongers with sinister intentions, no single picture or video clip exists to affirm the veracity of the claims. It was Nigerians, not foreigners, who witnessed the beastly assault some low-minded Naval ratings executed against Uzoma Okereke sometime in 2010, that recorded the shameful acts and uploaded it on the Internet for the world to see. Did camera phones or other similar devices go into extinction while soldiers assault and harass a lady and an okada rider (the imaginative creations of mischief makers)?
Moreover, I remember that the Special Adviser to the Governor Aregbesola was on live broadcast of the state television station about two weeks ago to encourage witnesses or victims of the untoward acts of SAS to contact him or the TV station with useful information. He gave out his personal number and six other numbers for this purpose. Not a single person has ventured in that direction.
I have the hunch that those behind these rumours are incorrigible enemies of the state, who are unhappy with the progress being made. It is not even unlikely that these supine and faceless people behind the misleading tales are the ones who are exceedingly uncomfortable with the reality that they may not be able to rig elections because there is a crime-fighting military apparatus on ground. Politically-motivated crimes are stamped out in Osun and the graceless sponsors are in distress, hence the horrible rumours. What is more, in the better-forgotten years of the Oyinlola administration, Osun citizens were at the mercy of criminals. Today, it is a different story with the current administration. With the solid presence of security men in strategic areas around the state, it is very possible that criminals are sorely troubled that the party is over. This too could be another reason for the ruinous claims against the new security outfit the government has put in place to ensure the security of life and property of the people.
While it is not impossible that some of these security men could be guilty of certain excesses in the performance of their duty, it is also not inconceivable that some weightless politicians and their foot soldiers incapable of deep introspection would resort to cheap lies and rumours in order to destroy a scheme that serves the people of the state very well.
In his address at the inauguration of SAS, Aregbesola did not mention fashion policing as part of the duties of this security scheme. What will make sense is for people to report any unseemly conduct by members of the squad, with verifiable evidence. It is another way we can all participate in the onerous task of ensuring the security of the people of our various communities. Let all mischief makers, rumour-mongers, and political irritants know that no edifice of lies can survive where the sledgehammer of truth is active.
• Alowonle writes from Osogbo
