New Acting IG of Police’s Statement Provocative, Unconstitutional Tuesday, 05 August 2014 20:34 By Nelson Ekujumi It was Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka who titled one of his works, “The Man Died in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny” and with this statement in mind, one must always in line with his/her civic responsibility as a citizen, conscious of the fact that the only way our democracy can take root and develop is, if we hold our public office holders accountable not only for their actions and deeds, but also for their pronouncements afterall, democracy has always been defined as government of the people, by the people and for the people.. Just this morning, today Tuesday 5th August 2014, I listened to the acting Inspector General of Police on national media, radio and television read the riot act that whoever has no business in Osun state should take his leave from the state preparatory to the gubernatorial election of August 9, 2014. This statement by the acting IGP, is not only reckless, laughable, provocative, irresponsible and illegal but is also in utter violation of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which guarantees citizens, the freedom of movement within the geographical territory called Nigeria. Ordinarily, one would have expected the acting IGP to sound a note of warning to people wanting to engage in undemocratic and criminal act of threatening the smooth conduct of the Osun gubernatorial election to desist from the act or face the full wrath of the law instead of this constitutional violating statement. Therefore, one wonders under what law and authority, did our ignorant and power drunk acting IGP derive the powers to assault the sensibilities of Nigerians by making this lawless pronouncement? For the education and enlightenment of the acting IGP, the constitutional right to freedom of movement of Nigerians can only be curtailed or abridged by a court of competent jurisdiction and not through the pronouncement of the acting IGP or any other officer of any of the security agencies for that matter. That Osun state is going to have its gubernatorial election conducted by INEC on August 9, 2014, does not confer on the acting IGP the right to assume the position of an Emperor talking to his subjects. Nigerians, anywhere within the geographical territory called Nigeria, have the constitutional right to freedom of movement and this they should exercise to the latter lest they succumb to tyranny of the police as enunciated in the acting IGP statement which is illegal, barbaric, crude, irresponsible, reckless, undemocratic and unconstitutional. In the light of this, one would like to use this medium to admonish the Nigerian state to always appoint only persons who have a working knowledge of the constitution to positions of authority in order to save us all the national embarrassment and international ridicule which the statement of the acting IGP has brought upon not only the Nigeria police in particular but also the country at large. One is hereby demanding an immediate and unconditional apology from the acting Inspector General of Police to the people of Osun state in particular and Nigerians in general for this irresponsible, illegal, provocative, undemocratic, unconstitutional and peace threatening pronouncement which has brought opprobrium to our integrity in the comity of civilized people. One would also like to use this opportunity to admonish the police and other security agencies on ground for maintaining security during the gubernatorial election in Osun state that they should conduct themselves professionally with civility and impartially in line with their oath of allegiance to the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 21:47:58 +0000
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