Issues
Shame Of A Nation …As Police Kill Citizen Over N20 Bribe
For the umpteenth time in our life as a nation- state, another innocent Nigerian citizen was felled by lethal bullets from the service weapon of a trigger- happy Police Officer. And the man died.
Police sources confirmed that the deceased, 30 year-old Onyeka Agupudo, an indigene of Okpu-Ifite in Agulu, Anaocha Local government Area of Anambra State was one of, as many as, five innocent Nigerian citizens shot dead penultimate Saturday by a Policeman, at peace time, for allegedly refusing to pay N20 bribe, at a check-point.
Media reports say, Onyeka and his friend, Onyekwelu Mojekwu (27), were on commercial motorcycles popularly called Okada when they were stopped by Mobile Policemen at Nwagu Junction in Agulu for routine search. Unfortunately, when the commercial motorcyclist, carrying Onyeka presented all his particulars, the Policeman insisted that the paper he requested for was N20 and immediately seized the Okada keys.
In the argument that ensued, the deceased, Onyeka Agupudo intervened and enquired of the Policeman why the Okada driver must pay N20 when his particulars were without blemish.
According to the deceased’s friend, Mojekwu, that question allegedly infuriated the Policeman who ordered everyone within reach to disperse and immediately shot Onyeka Agupudo to death, before shooting sporadically, in an exit strategy and in the process, killing four others.
Amidst persistent calls for Justice by well-meaning Nigerians, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (CID) of the State’s Headquarters was last Tuesday quoted as saying that the trigger-happy Police Officer had been arrested and was already facing departmental trial, after which he would be dismissed and charged for murder. He also said that the body of the deceased, allegedly taken away by the Police had been deposited at the mortuary of Regina Caeli Hospital in Awka, ostensibly for a Post-Mortem to be done by a government doctor after which the body will be released to the family.
This would not be the first time an innocent citizen would be gunned – down by Policemen at a checkpoint, which infact, is today, a glorified toll gate for extortion of funds from innocent and law-abiding road users.
Only last year, the Rivers State Ministry of Justice secured conviction of another trigger-happy Police constable who hand willfully murdered a final year medical student, and later labeled him an armed robber.
Till date it is not known why such a man who showed no respect for human life should have his protected by a dysfunctional justice system. Today, again, even before the commencement of formal trial of the Anambra Police-man some self-righteous non-governmental organizations in the name of protecting human rights have started advocating life imprisonment for the murder accused if eventually convicted, as they have often done in previous cases.
The argument of this class of Nigerians is, as always been, that condemned criminals should be spared the death penalty, and instead be given another opportunity to start a new life, an opportunity they often denied their victims
Interestingly, it was the renowned humanist, Mary Wollstone Crafts, who in one of her most quoted, letters written In Sweden, Norway and Denmark that actually fired this line of argument when she wrote: “Executions, far from being useful examples to survivors, have, I am persuaded, a quite contrary effect, by hardening the heart they ought to terrify”.
Armed with this and in the guise of protecting human rights, some African-based rights ideologues last year succeeded in convincing the Commissioner, Human and Peoples Rights’ Working Group on death penalty to help persuade Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan not to authorise the execution of about 870 death row felons, as at July last year, already condemned but who have been feeding fat on tax payers’ sweat for between five and 25 years. Strangely, the commission’s Chairperson, Alpini-Guason, achieved that without any resistance from the Nigerian government.
That back-door victory followed a valid resolution by the Nigerian Senate that all prisoners on death row be made to face the consequences of the choices they made in life, theirs, being an acceptance of the moral law “he who kills by the sword must himself die by it”. In taking that decision, the Senate was convinced that all sentences were products of courts of competent jurisdiction, that indeed took a thorough look at each having in mind, Publilius Syrus’ legal caution in the Semiramis, “it is better to risk saving a guilty person, than to condemn an innocent one, the same reason judgments of the kind are often subjected, to various appeals, with none, thus far adjudged to be a mistrial.
In clear terms, what campaigners for forgiveness for murderers appear to be telling Nigerians, is not just that the lives of murderers are more valuable, so, so important, they must also be allowed to feed fat, free of charge, on public funds while, law-abiding University graduates and others still roaming the streets in search of decent sources of livelihood, are gunned-down by trigger-happy policemen employed by the state to protect lives and property of the same citizens.
Truly, this line of argument, “reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and when sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan” as ascribed to Abraham Lincoln in Gross’s Lincoln Own Stories. How, for instance, can a Police constable willfully kill a final-year student, reading Medicine at the University of Port Harcourt at a Police check-point and thereafter, label his victim an armed robber, knowing fully well that the consequence of his action would be death, according to the laws of the land, yet unamended? And when such is pronounced, rights activists insist that the killer-constable be spared his own life, the same he denied the medical student.
If that constable had felt the full weight of the law-death, his Nwagu junction counterpart who killed the 30 year-old Onyeka Ogupudo would have thought twice before carrying out his dastardly act, over non-payment of N20 or he would have at least shot himself, thereafter.
This indeed, is why, I agree totally with Marcus Tillius Cicero who in the Pro Milone insists; “The greatest incitement to crime is the hope of escaping punishment,” and why its direct opposite, exact justice, is preferred.
Infact, James Russel Lowell magnified the point when, in his work, Among My Books Dante he says, “Exact Justice is commonly more merciful in the long run than pity, for it tends to foster in men those stronger qualities which make them good citizens”. I agree, because if the punishment for corruption is 10 years imprisonment without option of fine, and is so implemented without fear or favour, it leaves citizens with three choices, not to steal, steal and don’t be caught or don’t steal, and the punishment being, go to jail or stay way, by not stealing.
In like manner, if the laws of the land prescribe life imprisonment, with hard labour for second degree murder convicts and capital punishment for first-degree premeditated murderers, no attempt should be made to amend the penalty, in the middle of a game of murder and man-slaughter which are of course, life imprisonment or capital punishment.
But wait! Do these rights’ advocates ever stop to ponder over what an aggrieved individual, denied justice is capable of? Do they ever imagine the pain, anguish and sense of frustration they endure living with the loss of loved ones not by HIV/AIDS but through willful murder by another? What of the constant sense of betrayal they feel seeing such murderers walk about freely, in the face of glaring injustice?
The youngman, killed by the Policeman in Anambra State still has a 74 year-old father and an aged mother who both depend on the deceased for their livelihood. What about them? What indeed is the essence of a law if it cannot be enforced? Isn’t that a loud call to anarchy? At what point should Nigeria stand up to say enough of these senseless killings? When a Senator or Governor loses his child via such killing?
I ask because in an earlier treatise on this Column, published Monday, July 26, 2010, with the title: Saving Death Row Felons (The Moral, Legal Implications), I had argued, “Those who insist that executions would not serve as deterrent to others have not said what would. Debatably however, execution of armed robbers in the 70’s and 80’s actually helped to check the increase in armed robbery cases especially when, it was decreed then, that such executions be carried out in the criminals’ homesteads.”
“Conversely, I am persuaded, it is the pampering of condemned criminals on death-row, who still feed fat at tax-payer’s expense that appears to be the real incentive to increased criminality. Or doesn’t the Holy Bible insist “suffer not a witch to live”? If, even a witch can suffer capital punishment, why shouldn’t a trigger-happy Policeman who allegedly kills a citizen for intervening in an argument over whether or not an Okada rider should pay N20 at Police checkpoint.
As I argued in that article, and still do now, I do blame the various state governors for failing to exercise their constitutional powers of ordering death row felons to face justice. When shall we stop to pick and chose which law to obey and which to disobey?
My Agony is that a very dangerous precedence is gradually playing out, one that would further embolden common criminals into full fledged killers, certain that their lives, being more valuable than their victims’, would be spared upon conviction, and who knows, even gain their freedom sooner or later, should a powerful Kith or Kin pull the right strings, along the line of justice.
To stem such drift into precipice, the Police high command should carry out a self-search and fish out the bad eggs who now see collection of between N20 – N200 as legal; let the judiciary on its part continue to dispensce justice, without fear or favour and let the state governors summon the right political will to sign execution orders based on law. And in a timely fashion.
The time to act is now because the lives they could be saving may be theirs, when, sometime in the future they’ll test life without sirens.
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
