There is no doubt that IGP Onovo is a man of destiny being the first man from the South East to be the Inspector General of Police 39 years after the Nigeria- Biafra civil war. Severally Onovo’s name had come up for consideration few years back but he could not make it. Few weeks ago God in His infinite mercy remembered Onovo and quietly spoke to President Yar’Adua to approve Onovo as the IGP and the President listened. Today Onovo has made history. We thank God for him.
Onovo is a produt of the University of Nigeria and he knows that the credo of this great University is TO RESTORE THE DIGNITY OF MAN. Onovo’s major task is therefore not to follow the wrong footsteps of his predecessors but to carve a niche for himself. He must repackage, reinvent, reposition, and rebuild the battered image of the Nigeria Police as an organ of harassment and intimidation. If Onovo must know, Nigerians still see the Nigeria Police as an organ of exploitation and subjugation of the Nigerian people. I share the view that the Nigerian Police still remains a colonial creation used then by the invading colonial masters to intimidate, oppress, suppress and repress the people. Almost 50 years after the colonialists had left the shores of Nigeria, the Nigerian Police is yet to discard the mentality of that colonial era. Internal colonialists who have used the police to continue to harass and humiliate the Nigerian people have replaced the colonial masters. The Nigeria Police that is supposed to protect 150 million Nigerians has become a willing tool of any Party in power to work against the people. The corrupt, unrepentant and shameless ruling class uses the Police to serve its warped, jaundiced, narrow and criminal interest to the detriment of the greater majority of Nigerians.
This is the more reason why Nigerians are disturbed by Onovo’s first job as IGP when in a Gestapo manner and style, he asked a Magistrate Court to go after Engr Rauf Aregbesola in a matter already settled by an Appeal Court.We see this action of yours as partisan, lawless, and a travesty of justice. Onovo, as an intelligent officer failed to read between the lines on the matter before deploying the biased and terrible partisan Nigerian Police to do a dirty job that does not serve the interest of Nigerians. Onovo as an intelligent man must sit down to study properly the Oyinlola versus Aregbesola’s case before jumping into action. Onovo must know and must take the advice of William Winninger that “Six essential qualities that are the key to success are sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom and charity”. Onovo, if he cares about history and his father’s name must use the instrumentality of the Nigerian Police and other security agencies in Nigeria to find out whether the Police report on Osun 2007 Guber elections received in Abuja by a DCP who is now Commissioner of Police on 9th of May 2008 is authentic. Was Alhaji Sulaimon Hassan Olajoku and Ayo Oni a.k.a Ikemba killed? Was Mr. Rotimi Makinde, A C House of Rep. candidate in Ife division abducted? Was Miss Tosin Ajekaiye raped? Were there arson and assassination attack on A C Campaign Headquarters in Osogbo? Have you as IGP ordered on investigation on how these people Mr. Gbenga Kayode, Mr. Sango Adekoya, Chief Lawal Adesina, Mr. Samson Olanrewaju, Mr. Saheed Adebiyi, Alhaja Taibat Orija Jeunkogbadun were killed? Have you tried to find out the criminal roles played by Senator Iyiola Omisore, Senator Simeon Oduoye, Mr. Isaac Makinwa, Hon Joshua Ogunleye from Atakumosa East and West constituency, Mr. Waiadi and Dokun Adeniji from Ile Ife that led to their indictment in the report? Senator Omisore’s name featured in the murder of Chief Bola Ige, the former Attorney General of the federation, featured prominently in Ekiti governorship re-run in April this year and his name also featured in Osun killings. He must be brought to book. Why did it take the Police two years to know that the report is fake? If Oyinlola had won in the Appeal Court would he have said anything about the report? Given the gamut of atrocities committed by Oyinlola’s gangsters in Osun State Police should tell us the mechanism it used to determine that the Police report is fake. Why are AC members always at the receiving end and always the ones to be arrested and incarcerated by the Police? Is PDP the owner of the Nigerian Police or is the Police working for PDP? How much did Oyinlola pay the former IGP Okiro to declare that the report was fake? What is the relationship between Okiro and Oyinlola? Why is Onovo not probing the relationship between the Chairman of Osun Election Tribunal, Justice Thomas Naron and Oyinlola? Why is Onovo not probing the relationship between Oyinlola’s lawyer, Kalejaiye and the Justice Naron including their MTN telephone conversations that is yet to be made public? Is Onovo not concerned about people killed in Osun State? Are they not Nigerians? What if one of them killed is Onovo’s son or Yar’Adua’s son? Why can’t Onovo try to investigate if the report is authentic not minding who wrote it? Former President Clinton flew thousands of miles to North Korea to secure the release of two young American journalists Mrs.Laura Lung and Mrs Euna Lee after they were caught covering a scene on the border between China and North Korea because they are bonafide American citizens. Here we leave the poor to die unsung, unreported, unremembered.
Nigeria is looking for heroes. Onovo can be a hero if he applies his third eye and his sixth sense to investigate what happened in Osun between 2007 and now. Engr Rauf Aregbesola is one of the finest souls in this land and one of the most committed Nigerians I have met. Rauf is one of the most honest Nigerians I have ever met, very gentle, calm but firm. He is fragile, meek and humble but behind the fragile body is the man with the heart of steel. His power to make friends, his capacity to mobilize people and his ability to engage is extraordinary. If Engr Aregbesola is inconsequential in the politics of Osun State, why were policemen deployed to the State shortly before he was arrested? If Engr is a persona non grata, why did he have millions of committed followers and supporters in Osun State? Onovo must open his eyes and must not treat Rauf’s matter with kid’s gloves. If we ignore what happened in 2007, I urge Nigerians to prepare for the worse in 2011. If we do not punish offenders to serve as a deterrent to others woe betide this country!
When a candidate is campaigning for the presidency of any nation, he is partisan but when he wins partnership takes the centre stage. He becomes the president of everybody including PDP, AC, ANPP, ADC, APGA, LP, AD etc. In the same vein, when you are appointed the IGP, you become the IGP of 150 million Nigerians and not for the ruling class.
One Temple Chima Ubochi living in Bonn Germany has offered useful advice from authorities to Onovo because he wants him to succeed. Let me reproduce two of them here for Onovo in case he has forgotten. The first is from William O. Douglas: “Security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts” The second advice is from Richard Burr: “Although we must change the ways we protect our country, we must also guard against policies that appear attractive but offer little real protection and may even impeded our ability to protect ourselves” .Power is used as personal property in Nigeria and as a result Nigerian leaders enjoy punishing their people. They should go to other lands and see the way governments treat their people. We may ignore this to our peril: revolution is imminent in Nigeria if we do not walk fast to amend our ways. I see it, I see it and it is coming very fast! Those who have ears let them hear!
JOE IGBOKWE
Publicity Secretary
Action Congress Lagos State
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });