I have read about and listened to the news of the gruesome murder of six Ilaje youths at Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje Local Government in Ondo State, on Sunday, July 29, 2012. On the said day, Hon Raphael Nomiye, representing Ilaje-Ese-Odo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, was to distribute welfare packages to his supporters. The atmosphere became rowdy and the security details of the politician and naval officers present shot and killed six youths and wounded fifteen others severely.
I have read about and listened to the news of the gruesome murder of six Ilaje youths at Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje Local Government in Ondo State, on Sunday, July 29, 2012. On the said day, Hon Raphael Nomiye, representing Ilaje-Ese-Odo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, was to distribute welfare packages to his supporters. The atmosphere became rowdy and the security details of the politician and naval officers present shot and killed six youths and wounded fifteen others severely.
It has become a matter of great concern that politicians who cannot initiate appropriate bills and policies to address the endemic poverty of their people will turn around to be distributing largesse and doling out tokens of welfare packages as a way of boosting their support base among the people that they have indirectly impoverished. It is indeed an insult to the collective intelligence of our people for their elected representatives to treat them as objects of pity and ridicule, deserving only of bread and butter, neglecting the basic governmental responsibility of provision of basic infrastructure such as good roads, education, electricity, jobs, good health services, etc, through which the people can be permanently empowered and not to be turned objects of political support and patronage, every time an election is around the corner.
I condemn the brutal killing of defenceless and armless youths as barbaric, inhuman and ungodly. We must hold all politicians accountable for the constant mindless massacre of our people. In this case, Hon. Raphael Nomiye should be brought to book and held vicariously liable for the death of the youths and the fatal injuries sustained by fifteen others. He must pay and be held responsible for the medical treatment of those in the hospital and to compensate the families of the deceased, in addition to any criminal prosecution that he and the security details drafted to cover his occasion may be found liable for.
I urge the Inspector-General of Police and heads of other security agencies to properly monitor the deployment of security men by politicians for the sake of intimidating their opponents and to hack down their own people. Security men and women sustained through the tax and revenue of the people should not be the very source of their untimely death. Accordingly, I urge the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation to institute a judicial commission of inquiry to unravel the circumstances leading to death of these innocent youths and to bring the perpetrators to justice, without delay.
Thank you.
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Esq.
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