By Agba Ego Nkiti
Every young man in Port Harcourt will attest to this: SARS has become a menace. From extortion to outright brutalization, and death, they trample on people’s rights without looking back. However, the Rivers State Police Command has asked Rivers State Governor to respect Mr. Akin Fakorede’s rights. This is hypocrisy in its refined form.
Mr. Akin Fakorede is a lucky man, perhaps second to his overall boss, the IGP. The IGP, in an exhibition of hypocrisy, ordered Mr. Akin to sue the government and Governor of Rivers State for libel. In a letter dated May 17th, the IGP had ordered the F-SARS commander to seek legal actions against Wike and Rivers State Government for sponsoring publications in national dailies against Mr. Fakorede.
Governor Wike has launched a media war on Mr. Akin, accusing him of election rigging and brutalization of INEC staff during the rerun elections. The governor says INEC committee indicted Mr. Akin who was promoted to the position of assistant commissioner of police, transferred to Yobe State but was brought back 6 days after. The Police has not found it worthy, to take on INEC to explain the reason why it has indicted the SARS commander. No. They are asking for rights to be respected.
The governor thinks that there is a plan to use Mr Akin to perfect rigging during the 2019 elections. Even the Governor too is a lucky man. He is more concerned about his reelection more than those who are going to elect him. We are praying for safety from both the thieves and cultists and of course, Mr. Fakorede’s men.
I think that the governor being too complacent and thinking only about his reelection bid, does not know that Mr Akin and his boys have transformed into professional bullies armed by law with an extortionist mindset that intimidate, arrest unlawfully, detain and kill.
To the SARS personnel, everyone is either an armed robber or a Yahoo Boy. How a squad created to checkmate armed robbery, transformed itself and started doing the job of the EFCC in all its glory, beats my imagination.
But this is Nigeria where illegalities stand and people paid to do specific jobs do other things with little to no sanctions.
But before Mr. Akin sues the governor, it is pertinent that he looks himself in the mirror and ask himself specific questions, questions which only he can answer. Questions like ‘is he discharging his duties according to stipulated laws?’ ‘has he ever sanctioned his boys who run amok and arrest people who did nothing only to threaten and extort them?’ ‘who sues on behalf of those that they have bullied, extorted, detained and killed?’ ‘how will Mr. Akin feel standing inside the court to seek justice knowing that his conscience is full of injustice?
During the last #EndSARS campaign, the IGP, Ibrahim Idris, promised to reorganize the squad. While people voiced their concerns about the whole intimidation process of the squad, certain high placed individuals took to the streets, chanting war songs, saying that the commander is innocent of all accusations levelled against him by concerned citizens. However, for a moment, they were scarce on the roads and were a bit repressed. Presently, they have been let off the hook again and are extorting citizens they are meant to protect.
I am not a fan of Gov. Wike and his crude politics. I have tried as much to study the governor and I don’t see him as a person worthy of my vote. Not even the loudspeaker trying to replace him does deserve my vote but Mr. Akin Fakorede seeking permission to sue the governor is nothing but hypocrisy taken too far.
If I am to advise him sincerely, I will tell him to sit quietly, in his office, with a mirror standing before him, reflectively, and enjoy the media lynching. He and his boys have done worse.
Running to the court to save face while his subordinates harass and intimidate young people every day is like cutting your nose to spite your face. He is culpable of all the allegations levelled against him, the same way they tag all young boys striving to survive ‘Yahoo Boys’ without investigation. SARS is not EFCC. Let EFCC do their job.
Before Mr. Akin sues the governor, I want to remind him that a promising pharmacist died because SARS took money from the family of a boy arrested for armed robbery and released him. This boy came back and within one week, went into another frenzy and kidnapped the pharmacist and shot him on the process. The pharmacist died and was buried in a shallow grave by the mindless kidnappers. It took the intervention of the CID to rearrest the kidnappers and had them put away for good. This is fact, not fiction.
If SARS personnel hadn’t taken money and released the thief, the pharmacist would have still been alive and taking care of his two kids. Now, they have a vague idea of what their father looks like, because of people’s personal greed.
