Why Marshal Obuzor’s petition against F-SARS is a futile gesture – Police won’t read it

Okenyi Kenechi

While the commander of F-SARS in Rivers State has suddenly made a name for himself, good or bad, depending on which side of the political divide that you are on, Rivers State state youths and elders alike catch cold when he coughs. He was described as the non-executive governor of Rivers State with the gun in a post on social media and that might in a way be true. The truth is, after the Rivers State Executive Governor, Nyesom Wike, the next powerful person in the state is perhaps the ACP Akin Fakorode.

Marshal Obuzor must surely be disheartened to have been beaten and molested the way he was by F-SARS operatives some days ago. It is what it is. We all have been there before. He was able to draw the kind of attention he drew due to his position in the political strata of the state. Most people were maimed but coughed and no one heard about it.

The truth about the F-SARS atrocities is that the more we complain, the worse they become. It has never gotten better and I don’t think it will anytime soon. He should not take the move personally as we all hope that a change in the political climate in the country will end the F-SARS menace in the state. Yes, there is no other way to it, no other reason why the powerful commander still holds on to his position despite the mounting human right infringements recorded in the past years from his men.

And to think that he was posted to Yobe State after his promotion but was brought back six days later shows that he is here to play a role and we all are his tenants as long as he is in town.

Even Wike himself is not safe from Akin. It had happened before where F-SARS personnel obstructed the Governor’s convoy. Perhaps it is a payback for what Wike’s predecessor and current Minister of Transportation suffered under the garrulous Compol Joseph Mbu. But must we, the ordinary citizens partake in the clash of the political titans?

The quest to end F-SARS brutalities did not start today, neither will it end today. If there is anything that the last attempt by youths in the country who cried out against F-SARS brutalities achieved, it was the unleashing of the beasts in the men of the squad. That is why I think that the solution to this is only political. A change of the government at the centre will bring a change to the way we are treated in our own country.

Be it as it may, the petition written by Marshal Obuzor and his group against Akin will only increase the number of those written before and believe me, the police command will not read it as they have received tons of such letters in the past with little to nothing done about them.

While it is important and imperative that the youths present a common front towards the F-SARS menace, I see it same as pouring water on Zuma Rock hoping to melt it. The worst is yet to come as election approaches. There will also be a spike in criminal activities within the state leading to a more dangerous trend.

Those on the other side like Marshal should be rest assured that this is the beginning of a more tortuous journey whose end will determine whether we will continue to live the way we are or there will be a change in the way we are being treated.

With that being said, the IGP of police has remained adamant to the issue of F-SARS brutalities. The IGP was reported to have called those clamouring for the end of the squad on social media, criminals. What more suggests that it will be tougher before it gets better?

It is also yet to be seen how operatives of the squad will relate with the operatives of the neighbourhood Corps agency being set up by governor Wike considering the fact that members of the All Progressive Congress in the state had in time past, rejected the very idea of the Agency, saying that it is an attempt by the governor to equip a private army.