IS OYO STATE NOW A POLICE STATE?

PHOTO: OYO STATE GOVERNOR, ADEBAYO ALAO-AKALA.

The aborted abduction of a journalist, Mr. Akin Oyedele, Oyo State correspondent of the Punch Newspapers in Ibadan last week calls for concern. According to newspaper reports of the incident, the journalist was abducted at a cyber café on the ridiculous excuse that somebody mentioned the name of the Governor in the cyber café. One wonders when it has become a crime to mention the name of the governor of a State.  The journalist was in a cyber café, sending his stories when some plain cloth law enforcement agents reportedly barged in and accosted him, flashing their identity cards that they were policemen.

He introduced himself as a journalist by showing them his identity and complimentary cards. One of them went outside the café to make a phone call and came back to confirm the journalist was the one they were looking for and he was asked to follow them to the station. He asked what his offence was but they told him he should get into their car saying he would know his offence at the station. When he got outside and made to enter the car, the Aide De Camp (ADC) to the governor called him and told him to disregard the policemen saying it was a mix up. The pilot car they brought indicated that they were agents of the government and they were particularly sent by the ADC. The journalist went back to his job at the café and the policemen drove away.

The ADC called the journalist the following day to apologize and asked him to see him at the government house. The journalist did not honour the invitation but rather felt he owed the public the duty to report his experience to let the world know how those in position of authority wear the toga of tyrants and oppress ordinary citizens which most of the times leads to unexplainable deaths in police custody. What baffles me is why any individual whether a journalist or any other person would be arrested or harassed by policemen just because he mentioned the name of the governor of the State in a public place. Even if such an individual abuses the governor, it is within his fundamental human right to do so since the governor is a public servant who occupies his position at the mercy of the voter. Though votes don’t count in Nigeria, it is assumed that elected officials are in office as a result of votes until otherwise proven at the courts. The experience of the Punch journalist is the daily experience of ordinary Nigerians who are victims of State-sponsored terror.

The journalist did the right thing by exposing this barbaric and anti democratic exhibition of naked and crude force of the State reminiscent of Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany which were police States. This intimidation is not limited to Oyo State government officials. It is the trend in other States and at the Federal level of government. We have read about the case of how a passenger had the misfortune of sitting with Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel in a commercial flight from Abuja to Lagos. The security details to the governor asked the man to leave the seat in the first class cabin because he could not seat with the governor even though he paid for the seat first.  The attempt of the man to insist on his rights as he refused to vacate the seat earned him dirty slaps and kicks from the governor’s aide who was enjoying the show of shame. The man was again assaulted in Lagos and handed over to the police as if he had not been brutalized enough.

We have read about many excesses of the aides of State Governors who had done many abominable acts without any reproach from their bosses. They behave as if they are above the law while forgetting that those they oppress are the same people they were to constitutionally protect. They commit many despicable acts in the name of the governor. They harbour, nurture and protect thugs who harass perceived opponents while they always seek succour in the Government House. In Ekiti State in 2008, some thugs attacked the Chairman of the Action Congress and his deputy on their way from the tribunal and later ran to the gate of the government house where they were apprehended by an angry mob. They were taken to the police station only to be released on the orders of the Personal Assistant to the Governor as if he was the Inspector General of Police. The case ended there. In some cases, where thugs loyal to the government are arraigned before a court for a crime, the Attorney–General usually withdraws such case files or enters a nolle- prosequi that will signal the death of the case.

Only God knows what would have happened to the Punch journalist if the ADC had not had a rethink about his action. He could have been taken to the government house where anything could have happened to him, which the police would later deny. Oh! He is not with us, we didn’t arrest him, we only invited him and he has since been released. Many victims of police brutality had ended up dying mysteriously or disappearing without any trace. The ADC and the policemen who acted on his instructions should be quizzed by the police authorities. This is the only way the excesses of our policemen could be put into check.

Hakeem Jamiu, hakeematus@yahoo.com, 0808 311 2749 SMS only.