By Oguwike Nwachuku
On Saturday morning, July 29, 2023, the serenity of a popular part of Owerri capital city, Ikenegbu Extension, was violated by a seven-man gang of gunmen who criminally feasted on a prime jewelry shop in the area – Goldwise Jewelries – carting away items estimated at millions of Naira. When the criminals struck, residents scampered for safety.
The gunmen took advantage of the State’s monthly environmental sanitation exercise holding same day to attack and perpetrate their devious and devilish act against the people.
But luck ran out on them as police detectives in Owerri, acting on intelligence, raced to the place with their Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), engaged the bandits, neutralised one of them and arrested two others. Police said the rest fled with gunshot wounds.
When the Cops stormed the area and successfully confronted the bandits, instantaneously, there was jubilation at the place among the residents.
Not a few of the jubilant residents had kind words for Governor Hope Uzodimma over the feat recorded by his Government, the Police and by extension, the security agencies in Imo.
Yours sincerely was touched by the residents’ exhibition of gratitude to the Police over the incident on the one hand and on the other hand, the governor.
Reason?
The Government of Governor Uzodimma has been making frantic efforts in the past three and half years to protect the lives and property of the residents in the face of daunting insecurity with the attendant threat to their wellbeing due to the activities of bandits.
Their jubilation shows how prepared the people were to embrace efforts by government to restore security and peace in Imo.
Imo citizens who heard about the failed outing at the jewelry shop were joyous because had it succeeded as planned, it would have, as usual, been dubbed a tale of another black Saturday in Owerri by the newspapers – traditional and online.
Besides, the unconscionable wailers in the State waiting in the wings to politicise the event would have shamelessly placed the blame at the door steps of Governor Uzodimma as they are wont to do, absolving non state actors as main culprits from their dastard pastime of unleashing terror on the citizens.
There is a major take away from the event that took place at the Goldwise Jewelries over the weekend. That lesson is the characterization by many that majority of the so-called unknown gunmen parading themselves as freedom fighters championing the “liberation of the people in the South East” are actually criminals roaring like lions in the Eastern region looking for the citizens to devour or, and, for their property to confiscate.
In Nigeria, security of lives and property of the people is always on the priority list of the government at all levels and will, at all times, occupy the centre-stage of discussions at national, regional and state events.
Today, most of the State Governors no longer sleep with their eyes closed because (in)security in their jurisdictions, in line with the oath of office they took, has put them on edge. Be that as it may, they commit everything at their behest to ensure that the oath is not for mere rehearsal.
Therefore, the failed attempt by the gunmen to possibly kidnap and forcefully dispossess the owners of Goldwise Jewelries their property is a serious crime.
Obviously, it is an act that violates the law of the land and hurts the security architecture of any State which is anchored on law and order. Call crime a sin if you may, or an act of serious moral wrongdoing, or something deplorable, you will not be wrong. That is why every act of crime or criminality has a place in the law of the land and therefore punishable.
A crime is a crime whether it is armed robbery, banditry, kidnapping, murder/assassination, character assassination, criminal defamation or libel, et al. The good news is that they all have a place in the law books of our country just as the law enforcement agencies are also empowered, under the law, to deal with those who run foul of the provisions of the statue books vis-a-vis crimes linked to them.
I want us to relate the crime the gunmen committed at the jewelries shop in Ikenegbu Extension that led to some arrest effected with the recent arrest, also by the police, of a certain Owerri-based Radio Presenter, Mr. Chinonso Uba, who goes by the sobriquet, Nonsonkwa.
Those I love to call unconscionable sympathizers, ready-made cheer leaders for the wrong reasons, have as usual dubbed Mr. Uba’s arrest abduction. Those who did not say he was abducted said he was kidnapped. In all, we know their intention is the same – to divert attention of the public from the core reason for Mr. Uba’s alleged crime. After all, the good book tells us that from their fruits we shall know them.
The many unsavoury commentators who litter our environment should be a cause for worry to all of us. Their quick-fix approach to dealing with critical criminal issues perpetrated by a few members of the public which are damaging to the majority interest is as destructive, if not more damaging, than the criminal acts themselves.
Yours sincerely is particularly worried that my good friend and brother, Steve Osuji, a seasoned journalist of many years standing, wrote rather too soon on the arrest of Mr. Uba in his column, Expresso.
That Steve went into deliberate embellishment in his piece in such algorithmic oriented language, suggesting pejoratively, that the government of Governor Uzodimma has been hounding Mr. Uba for years, reminds any sane mind of his own intention in the painful but costly efforts by the government of the day to deal decisively with the hydra-headed monster of insecurity and those fanning its embers.
I repeat, whatever happened to my brother, Steve, that made him to describe Mr. Uba’s arrest as abduction by hooded Cops is still difficult to fathom, particularly as he personally availed his readers with the reason adduced by the police who carried out the operation on the day in question and accordingly, issued a statement for their action.
To a large extent, Mr. Uba is protected under Chapter 4, Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended which is on the right to freedom of expression and the press. “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference,” paragraph one of that section says.
I understand that Mr. Uba was arrested by the police from the headquarters in Abuja in connection with criminal defamation or, and, assassination of character of the person of Governor Uzodimma.
Many may want to ask what led to Mr. Uba’s arrest.
Not long ago, he did a video where he accused Governor Uzodimma of conspiring with Asari Dokubo to kill and be killing Imo people. Mr. Uba made that allegation against a man who swore an oath to protect the lives and property of Imo people without the slightest appreciation of how heinous his claims were.
You needed to have watched the video to come to grips with the import of Mr. Uba’s thoughtlessness. Expectedly, as the video went viral, Mr. Uba sat happily by and gleefully savoured the responses that came from his largely uniformed audience who, like him, do not know that there is a limit to freedom of speech and expression under the law.
Governor Uzodimma had taken the humiliation that came with the trending video with equanimity. And as a law abiding citizen, he complained to the police to investigate the allegation by Nonsonkwa that as governor he was in alliance with Asari Dokubo to kill and be killing those he took an oath to protect their lives and property, in the interest of the public.
Therefore, when the police came for Nonsonkwa, it was with the intention to investigate the authenticity of his bold and courageous allegation.
Unfortunately, a senior journalist in the mould of Steve who ought to call Nonsonkwa to order rather opted to use his highly priced column to politicise what he knows too well is a crime that is punishable under the law, should the suspect be found culpable.
I challenge Steve to go and watch that video and tell the world what he would have done was he in the shoes of Governor Uzodimma, even as not a governor.
Of late, I am yet to know of any greater criminal defamation or, and, assassination of character than this. Therefore, if the police arrested Nnosonkwa to come and adduce evidence over his allegation, what is unlawful there?
One would have thought that while Nnosonkwa was busy making the wild and unsubstantiated allegation, those who have been goading him on over the years on his unprofessional outings and unbecoming demeanor, should have as well come to terms with its grievous implication rather than resorting to shouting wolf on his behalf as if it is not also blood and water that flow in the veins of Governor Uzodimma whom the young man set out, ab initio, to assassinate his character.
It is a shame that informed commentators are trying to change the narrative of what had happened, glamourising the deeds of a young man who has painted a different picture of what professional broadcasting represents with the consequences starring all of us on the face.
It beats the imagination that Steve counseled the security operatives on professional conduct, but preached that Mr. Uba be handled with care as a journalist doing his “legitimate” work. Why then is Steve blinded over professionalism in media practice? Does he not know that there is only one Police Force in Nigeria, and that the police can go to any part of the country to carry out investigation? Why mischievously incite Imo people with the police?
What does Governor Uzodimma stand to gain by hounding after Nonsonkwa as some commentators like Steve try to make the public believe? Was Steve dreaming when he described Nonsonkwa as a “prisoner of conscience under Governor Uzodimma administration” who “has his way with the mic” as a “talented and fearless presenter” and “a lone voice speaking in the Imo wilderness where the detestable state machine has cowed the populace” or acting a script?
Last year, Nonsonkwa was sanctioned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), and the Osiza-FM radio station he was working for fined. The question is: Was it out of professional misconduct on his part, or “tyranny, intolerance and vendetta” as Steve tried to suggest? Old habits they say die hard. Could Nonsonkwa be suffering from that?
Instead of those who claim they love him to sit him down and advise him to play by the rules of his professional calling, they prefer to hail him for the yarn he spins out of his mouth everyday which has devalued us as a people.
Today in Imo, you find comedians, masters of ceremonies (MCs) and other characters who are jolted one way or the other psychologically, sitting pretty behind the microphone in radio studios and answering broadcasters and they are given awards for the nuisance they constitute to our environment that pollutes our collective psyche.
Imo people have had to suffer untold hardship as a result of acts that promote diverse insecurity. I am sorry to say that a lot of us have had to facilitate insecurity in the State with what we either say, do, or write. Invariably, those in such category are not better than the gunmen who kidnap, kill and even force our people to sit at home.
Precious lives of monarchs, youths, women, men, politicians, security agents, have been lost in circumstances that are confounding due to the activities of criminals – unknown gunmen – in our dear State.
Day in and out, the government looks for ways to steady the ship of insecurity sailing or cascading dangerously in all the nooks and crannies of Imo State and taking a toll on her scarce resources and growth.
The time to collectively solve the problem of insecurity in our State is now, and it is either we are committed to it or not. Lip service cannot take us anywhere. Hatred for Governor Uzodimma over nothing will not, either.
It is only natural that he who alleges proves his allegation. We must be prepared to live as humans or as beasts, and as humans for now, I think we have no choice than to live within the ambits of the law. That is what Mr. Uba must be encouraged to do – not to run amok with nonsense.
Nwachuku, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Uzodimma writes from Owerri
