On its front page, the New York Times of October 21, 2020 reported as follows: “Soldiers and police opening fire on unarmed youths in an upscale neighborhood shocked the nation, even older citizens who recalled growing up under a series of military dictatorships.” On the same day, The Nation newspaper carried on its back page in bold headlines: “BRUTES IN UNIFORM”
That was not the case in 1953 when all the police had were truncheons and torchlights. As for the soldiers, they marched around Lagos and other major cities once a week and dazzled us with their dainty footwork while at regular intervals, the mascot would throw up his baton into the air and catch it with impeccable dexterity.
Ronald Reagan [1911 to 2004] the late President of the United States of America got it right when he said: “And something else we learned, once you begin a great movement, there is no telling where it’ll end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world.”
We are in a bind – should we cast our lot with the panel and wait for its report or should we plump for allowing the young people/protesters to set the agenda along with giving them free rein regarding the issues they care about?
(An address to Chief Taiwo Lakanu)
We are in a bind – should we cast our lot with the panel and wait for its report or should we plump for allowing the young people/protesters to set the agenda along with giving them free rein regarding the issues they care about?
Besides, can we really place much score or confidence in panels? We have had panels galore but nothing came of them. In 2001, we had the Ikeja Bomb Explosion panel. It was a Sunday morning on January 27, 2002 when explosions rent the air, the source was traced to the Ikeja military cantonment.
In the meantime, it was panic and pandemonium all over Lagos. There was rampant speculation that it was a coup d’état. For those in the Ikeja it was a horror show as everyone fled in search of safety.
The stampede that ensued saw hundreds (possibly thousands) perishing in the swamps of Oke Afa. When the President visited the bomb site, he brusquely declared: “I don’t have to be here.” That was it, off he went.
The damage was colossal. It was not limited to the lack of empathy. All over Ikeja, buildings suffered massive damage but that was not the real issue. I was exceptionally fortunate that a bomb that fell through the roof very narrowly missed the head of my expatriate tenant.
The panel of investigation invited all those whose buildings were damaged to submit their claims. Here we are almost twenty years afterwards, my claim based on repairs carried out by one of our most reputable construction companies remains unpaid. It was a complete waste of time.
Was it not in 2014 that the Immigration Department (under the Ministry of Internal Affairs) invited thousands of applicants to turn up for job interviews at the Abuja stadium? Each applicant had paid ₦1,000 for the application form.
The aggregate amounted to hundreds of millions which had been paid to a non-descript consultant. There were numerous fatalities with scores injured as a result of the overcrowding, impatience and stampede.
A panel was subsequently set up but the report is gathering dust somewhere in Abuja with specific reference to the police and the security agencies whose respective roles are right at the central vortex of the imbroglio.
let us invite Mr. John Momoh, Chairman of Channels Television to share with us his aborted documentary on the appalling conditions at the Police Academy at Ikeja. We need to establish whether or not it was only a rumour (or fact) that he was threatened with losing his broadcasting licences as well as the danger of being charged with treason.
Again, when the police shot a U.S. based Nigerian athlete, Dele Udo at a check point just outside the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos in 1981, a panel of investigation was set up. What became of the report and were the culprits ever charged for manslaughter/murder?
It will not be out of place for the panel being chaired by Justice Doris Okuwobi to revisit the report of the panel of investigation that was set up following the fire that engulfed the NITEL Building on the Marina, Lagos. It was the Headquarters of the Nigerian Telecommunications Company.
One of the victims of the subsequent police investigation Otunba G.A. Tugbogbo is still alive. He was the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Internal Affairs. His offense was that while on inspection of departments under his ministry, he observed that fire brigade vehicles had been parked for months in front of the NITEL building. They had not been serviced for ages.
He ordered that they should be sent for repairs and relocated to a more suitable venue so that they could provide services to other parts of Lagos in the event of fire outbreak. To cut a long story short, he was arrested by the police and charged for arson and murder!!
The truth of the matter is that apart from SARS, the police have a lot to answer for.
