LAGOS—National League of Veteran Journalists has frowned at what it described as ‘disturbing reports of assassination, political harassment and flagrant abuses of power allegedly by people in authority in new Nigeria’ and particularly condemned the recent arrest of former governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba by the police. In a statement jointly signed by the Secretary-General of the league, Ben Lawrence and Former President, Executive member, Ajibade Fasina-Thomas weekend in Lagos, the league noted that cases of unsolved murders in the recent past is puzzling and casts a shadow on civilian rule.
“And to avert any mishap or mischief to our colleague and member, Chief Olusegun Osoba, former governor of Ogun state, we condemn the overplay of power by the zone 2 command of the Nigeria Police Force on the arrest on alleged complicity in a normal case of breach of the peace. It was reminiscent of the Anambra debacle in which the zonal command at Umuahia usurped the functions of that state’s police outfit and invaded the government house at Awka to depose an elected and serving governor; a true case of treason.
The Anambra crisis
“These dictatorial tendencies, trappings of an authoritarian state, must be stopped in the interest of order in Nigeria. The world watched helplessly as that case was swept under the carpet. That incident that tore in shreds the sanctity of the Nigerian Constitution and the Nigerian state has been hushed by the presidency with one Commodore (rtd) Olabode George, a PDP chieftain leading the chorus; a clear case of abetting criminality.
“Afraid that something untoward may happen, if the designs of our colleague’s adversaries are allowed to pass in this climate of miscarriage of justice, we are calling on all people of goodwill to rally to the side of peace to prevent any harm to him. Our concern derives from an earlier incident in which a contingent of the army and the police was drafted to Iyin-Ekiti to literally imprison a serving state chief executive, Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos, our colleague, their host, former Ekiti State Governor, Chief Adebayo and others at a funeral party.
The invasion in Ekiti
“The Nigerian Army denied knowledge of that invasion which proved that it was arbitrarily ordered outside the normal chain of command. Up till now, only the inevitable Bode George has owned any knowledge of that operation. This paints a picture that our colleague is being hunted. This is dangerous for democracy and gives room to abuse of state powers.
“Curiously, we find it difficult to understand why the police imposed a bail of N50 million on the alleged complicity in a case of breach of the public peace, a common place offence all over the world at public meetings (booing or pelting public men with rotten eggs) while one that confounded the Constitution and assailed the corporate being of a state, overthrow of an elected state chief executive, was treated lightly by the authorities' no arrest, no remand in prison custody, no bail, nothing.
“This is double standard and evidence of shooting an elephant with a catapult and killing a fly with a blunderbuss. Even the villain in the Anambra episode got handsome benefits in retirement that he did not live to enjoy”, they stated.
The league also condemned the murder of airline Captain Jerry Agbeyegbe in curious circumstances in Lagos recently and noted that his role in resisting damnable government measures that badly affected the well-being of the people was very significant and raises questions over the circumstances of his assassination.
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