OPINION: DESCENT TO A GESTAPO STATE: A CONDEMNATION OF THE POLICE ORDER ON KASSIM AFEGBUA
Dr. Don Pedro Obaseki
It is no longer news that the Nigeria Police, in increasing characteristic overzealousness, has allegedly declared Prince Kassim Afegbua “WANTED”! This singular action is deplorable and must be condemned in its entirety by all well-intentioned Nigerians. Not only is it a gross abuse of process, it is emblematic of the near-Gestapo state that Nigeria has degenerated to.
What warrants a “WANTED” declaration or order from the IGP on Prince Kassim Afegbua? Was he ever invited by the Police, prior to that dubious order and Afegbua refused to honour same? Did his principal report a case of impersonation to the police prior to that? Did General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida not grant an interview personally to a national daily (ThisDay) stating clearly that Afegbua acted on his (IBB’s) instruction(s)? Is it not curious that ChannelsTV & NTA kept broadcasting a rebuttal purportedly signed by General Babangida, GCON (when General Babangida’s correct suffix is ” GCFR”)?
I am compelled to conclude that it is the proverbial “Hand of Esau, Voice of Jacob” at play. Unfortunately, the author of the unfolding melodrama is in the words of Aristotle, a “writer of bad prose!”
Prince Kassim Afegbua, a great Edo son and a Nigerian patriot of Midwest extraction, is not a stranger to the masses of our beloved country. He is a proud son of the Midwest Region, and a believer in the potential greatness of our country. It thus must be stated unequivocally, that it appears Prince Afegbua is being maligned as an obvious victim of the IGP’s increasingly selective dispersal of his duties! The common man is victim! It appears like anyone who is bold enough to vocalize the muted cries of the common man, morphs into WANTED MAN in the Police lexicon.
While not denying the Police the rights to perform its statutory functions, it must do it within the armbit of the Law! Anything to the contrary is unacceptable, and thus a gross violation of the rights of Prince Afegbua as a bona fide citizen of Nigeria as enshrined in, and protected by our Constitution. We are in a democracy and the Nigeria Police is not a Gestapo outfit!
– Don Pedro Obaseki, MBA, PhD.(convener of the Midwest Movement
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