Re: Audu Akolo on threat of fighter harderfor indicted person,pls All nas should saved his post,because of security reasons. OMBASTE and FG DEAFENDING SILENCE Last Mays incident at Alakyo was most certainly the single largest loss of lives suffered by Nigerian security agencies in a single incident since the Civil War, except for the 1992 Hercules plane crash, which was an accident. No other criminal group or person took so many lives of Nigerian policemen and other security agents in one fell swoop as did the Ombatse militia last May. For example, the infamous incident at Odi in Bayelsa State claimed the lives of 12 soldiers while the equally notorious incident at Zaki Biam, Benue State some years later claimed the lives of 18 soldiers. On both occasions, federal authorities overreacted by allowing soldiers to carry out punitive raids in those communities leading to many more deaths and a lot of property destruction. In contrast, the Federal Governments response to the tragedy at Alakyo has been one of a deafening silence. No one expected punitive raids, for the authorities may by now have learnt their lessons. But Nigerians fully expected to see a vigorous security operation to apprehend the cult leaders and members who laid the ambush and proceeded to shoot, hack and otherwise slaughter the cops with the greatest malice and to burn their remains beyond recognition. Instead, Nigerians got what has gone down in history as the most puzzling of official responses when the DSS boss spoke about forgiving those who carried out the atrocity. Not surprisingly, no one was apprehended or prosecuted for the offence ever since. It could well be that local politics was the root cause of the crisis in the first place, with ethnic Eggon leaders having played major spoiler roles in state politics. Where once they helped PDP win victories, they turned around in 2011 and helped elect Governor Almakura. The fight for 2015 began soon afterwards with allegations that there was a promise to shift power to the Eggon candidates in 2015. The deadly cults name Ombatse, which is said to mean our time has come, is said to be the battering ram for the actualisation of an Eggon governorship of the state in 2015. All these would have passed as normal jockeying for political power except that mass murder came into the equation. And where mass murder took place, politics must be set aside until we find and punish the culprits. It is in this wise that we urge the police and all other authorities to give full legal effect to the White Paper on the Alakyo murders. A state governor has the power under the law to constitute such a panel and to issue a White Paper on its findings. If, at the wink of federal authorities, the police now choose to ignore the White Papers order to arrest and prosecute the culprits, then some people would have gotten away with mass murder because they happen to be on the politically correct side. This must not happen in this land. Already, relatives of the slain cops have risen in arms against the authorities non-challant attitude. Parents, widows, friends and relatives of the slain cops took turns at a rally last week charging that the Federal Government has abandoned justice in favour of politics. They said the Federal Governments long silence on the issue as well as its failure to issue clear directives were enough to convince relatives their dead men would not get justice. They had earlier protested to Vice President Namadi Sambo when he visited the state but it elicited no action. We are now urging the Federal authorities one more time not to make a historic blunder by trying to sweep the findings of this White Paper under the carpet. It should direct the police to promptly arrest and prosecute all those who were indicted in the White Paper, as well as those who were indicted by the police and DSSs own investigations, if they carried out any. If this matter is ignored in the hope of winning Eggon votes for PDP in the 2015 elections, it will be a blunder of historic proportions, the consequences of which will become manifest in the not too distant future.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 05:52:03 +0000
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