First, let me commiserate with all those that lost friends, family or relations during the protest by the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) who were demanding obedience for our laws and respect for the judiciary and the confrontation that followed.
I am not a fan of IMN neither do I admire any import from Iran. I don’t need to like them to recognize their rights within the law to be treated fairly and equally as citizens. Long and unlawfully detention of any citizen should not have a space in our democracy. I do not buy the conflicting idea that the rule of law is subordinate to national security as interpreted by the executive arm of government. Only the court has the power to interpret national security. If the courts in their wisdom granted bail to anyone, that decision must be obeyed.
No matter what the pretentions are, the government has lost the moral battle against IMN as the supposedly ‘renegade and felonious’ group is now teaching our own democratic government the meaning of supremacy of the law in a democracy and why court judgments must be obeyed by both the high and mighty. The judiciary remains the last hope of the common man. Decisions of the court must be obeyed and not ridiculed. We must understand that disobedience to court orders is a recipe to anarchy and that is what is playing out in Nigeria now
Specifically, IMN demands that the government obey different court pronouncements ordering the release of their leader Sheik Ibrahim Alzakzaky. We do not have the liberty to pick cherry which court judgment to obey and which not to obey. Neither the president nor the entire Executive arm rolled in one is the law. The most that can be done against any law we don’t like is to amend or repudiate it through the legislature. Thank God we now have a National Assembly that is willing to act as the rubber stamp of the executive.
However, as a nation we must appreciate that Nigeria cannot afford to have IMN turn into another asymmetrical terrorist group. It is the extreme case of pyromania for any leader to allow the country burn in different fronts at the same time. We are already being overwhelmed and our national budget overstretched contending with Boko Haram, ISWAP/ISIS (in the North East), “bandits” (in the North West and North Central), armed Fulani herders and the janjaweed (North Central, South East and South West).
Whatever is the politics and the argument Nigeria should not be allowed to be the theatre of conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
One needs to understand the game playing out in Yemen that has led to its destruction to understand what this portends for Nigeria except we wear our thinking cap and fashion out a way to co-exist as one people, under one nation under one God. Like Christianity, Islam has sects. The Shiites pledge allegiance to Iran and her Supreme Leader. The Sunnis are pro-Saudi. Nigeria has more Sunnis than Shiites. The two groups have always had their schism and grave suspicions against each other.
This schism gets more complicated when one understands the current ‘war’ between the United States under President Trump and Iran. Saudi is ever willing to assist in limiting the influence of Iran. That quasi economic war led to the US pulling out of the multi-nation nuclear deal signed under Obama with Iran. Further complicated by recent economic sanctions, Iran is looking like a pariah and her tit for tat seizure of tankers on the high seas with Britain risks alienating her more from the European Union to the delight of the United States.
Syria still does under the table deals with Iran and with the tacit backing of her own allies albeit surreptitiously. The major foreign powers often use proxies to engage with each other. Add religion to that and it becomes really combustible. It is my hope that Nigeria will avoid becoming the next chessboard for the game of proxy battles.
Back to the subject of this essay: My heart bleeds especially for young Precious Owolabi who was serving out his NYSC with Channels TV until his untimely death from gunshot wounds. May the Good Lord comfort and console the family, friends and loved ones that are grief. I also pray for the repose of DCP Umar of the FCT Command, a fine officer and a gentleman who was killed by gunshot wounds to the head. May his gentle soul rest in peace. I commiserate with the wife, children and family. May they be comforted as they mourn their irreparable loss. There were also other dead numbers from the side of IMN. May Allah receive and grant peace to their souls.
The big question begging for answer is , ‘whose bullets killed DCP Umar and Citizen Precious Owolabi and those other citizens that died during the Shiites protest? Was it the Shiites or the police bullets? There has been sweeping attempt to blame the death of DCP Umar in particular on the Shiite protesters by the police and the media.
Soon after the protest, a member of the Shiite group who perhaps was part of the protest called my phone to narrate their plights and how fellow citizens and the media are not sympathetic to their cause. He said the police and security agencies hunt and kill their members as if they are rodents. After saying all he wanted to say I demanded to know from him why the Shiites killed a law officer and also a journalist. He told me the police killed DCP Umar and not the Shiites. He claimed the Shiites were not armed and as such wouldn’t have shot the DCP. He claimed all the shootings were from the police and that the protesters were willing martyrs ready to die without resistance.
He said DCP Umar who led the police operation was addressing their members to calm their peaceful protest, He said the DCP was not armed and was facing them while backing the rest of the armed police who were his men, and that suddenly the police started shooting sporadically at them without care to their lives and that of their commander. He insisted that the police killed their own man and asked that the protest should be probed by an independent body to ascertain the truth.
This brief telephone conversation forced me to take another look at the pictures of the dead DCP as he lay in the morgue and I discovered he was actually shot severally at the back of the head. Only the police whom he is backing would have shot him from the rear, not the Shiites whom he was face to face with. Also a check of the bullet wound can determine the projectile and the type of rifle that fired the shots
I was also concerned that the DCP was hurriedly buried within hours of his death and perhaps without an autopsy and without an inquest and without a probe. Why will an officer of that rank who died in active duty be buried in such a hurried manner without autopsy?
Nigerians need to know whose bullets killed DCP Umar and Precious Owolabi of Channels. I demand for a comprehensive probe on the grounds that it will help the police understand what really went wrong with the disastrous operation which I regard as a minus to police reputation. Why was the police careless about the life of their own commander? Who gave the order to shoot while the DCP was still within range of fire?.
Rather than proceed on recess, a responsible national assembly should probe the police handling of the Shiites protest. The police should also be able to conduct their own internal probe to determine how the DCP died because it would have been the IGP himself.