Well, maybe Ibrahim Idris and his men have gone beyond shocking us, with benumbing misconducts, especially the zero value, placed on the lives of unfortunate but innocent Nigerians who have crossed the path of the IGP’s terror-machine; SARS.
At the height of SARS simultaneous madness all over the country, depravity became somewhat of a competition among officers and men, with the diadem in infamy, going to the most bestial who could make a fun sport of causing sorrows anywhere and elsewhere, with just a cork of the gun. That SARS, love-him, hate-him fellow; Abba Kyari (some of his accomplishments can’t be wished away) and his well-oiled coercion comrades, were mentioned in Evans’ tirade, means the killing-field exposé is beyond the fable of a drowning criminal, desperately seeking to dunk as many persons as possible, among his captors, under the water. SARS, Kyari and his lieutenants have a history and reputation that match Chukwudumeme accounts of how suspects were “travelled” (police code for extra-judicial murder) at the IGP’s Lagos guesthouse. And nothing defines a man much more than the reputation he inadvertently built as a pattern, during moments of indiscretion.
Police could easily get these heinous crimes dismissed. Evans, by his own interview to the media, confessed to be a criminal and the argument would be, what can the testimony of such a man worth? Someone so schooled in the art of subterfuge, a skill, most-required, to keep relatives of kidnap victims swirling in a circle until the abductors get the wanted wards of dough? To confirm the adoption of this dismissive ‘skill’, instead of providing evidence they weren’t murdering suspects, extra-judicially so, in the backyard of IGP’s relaxation arena, police in their case before the court, kept trumpeting how murderously vicious was Evans in the handling of his kidnap victims, particularly the most prominent, the big-time transporter, who Evans allegedly shot at, in the course of taking him in, for cash.
It would surely be fool-hardy to assume the destructive spirit operating in Evans as the heir apparent of crime kingdom had suddenly taken leave of him, because he became a canary like others before him, when caught. He would likely embellish to further drag the police low, but for his interrogators to hide him from Femi Falana, a fact not disputed, shows the police had some sinister stuff up their sleeves from the word-go and it is their call to incontrovertibly dispute his accounts of what he saw at Alagbon (apology to Stephen Olaore Oladipupo Owomoyela a.k.a. Orlando Owoh). If I had a pick of a fairer version, between Evans’ allegations and police likely defence, my choice won’t be difficult, regardless of the fact that police had not denied murdering suspects, not convicted and sentenced to death by competent courts of law.
It is very likely relevant authorities as well as international and local human rights watchdogs, would dismiss Evans as a hostile witness whose first-hand accounts of live happenings around him at the said “abattoir”, will not be completely reliable for documentation to top the human rights deficit of this administration. Well, fine, we can side-step Evans, but can we also let other clear-cut cases of gross human rights violations and extra-judicial killings listed against security agencies in this democratic dispensation, hang forever without someone somewhere, making the appropriate payment? Yes, there is a heart-warming news from ICC about the sustained bloodletting in the name of herder/farmer crisis, but what about the herdsmen in real security uniforms? Who will tame them and bring them to justice?
In a clime as partisan as ours, especially in an election year, it may be beyond hope expecting a national uproar over plain official killings like the on-the-spot murder of suspects Evans described, but the real tragedy for the victims and their grieving relatives, is a din of silence, from everywhere. When a people perceive a system that should protect them as not only oppressive but also selective and parochial in its ways, justice is usually sought in the jungle. Police are likely eliminating suspects they consider as “omo ijoba” (societal reject who no one would seriously seek their return) and truly some of these suspects are criminals the society doesn’t deserve to have among decent men, but if my memory serves me, Nigeria is still a country of law and order, though the skies around here for now, appear lawless, disorderly and rudderless. But surely, this moment too shall pass.
Trevor Noah’s silly Buhari joke
Comedian Trevor Noah is a grave African import to the US. The South African caused internet meltdown recently by saying the president of Nigeria, meaning President Muhammadu Buhari, could be used for the most debasing of clone jokes, because “he doesn’t matter.” C’mon, we are talking about the representation of the largest concentration of blacks in the entire universe. Aside Madiba, has Trevor’s original soil produced anyone so fittingly for common-sense leadership, for him to so violently drag the Nigerian leader? And if by chance, he now sees himself as completely American, which is cool, has his adopted land fared better with leaders that matter, in recent time, for any Yankee, whether true-born or slave, to be so foul-mouthed against any leadership? Nigerians celebrating Trevor’s minute-of-madness as a repudiation of whatever leadership value President Buhari represents, should just check their smiling faces in the next available mirror. What would stare back at them, if they chose to be truthful to themselves, is Trevor sticking a decomposing foot in their ajar mouths. C’mon Nigerians, we are better than this.
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