Sir: The recent ‘abduction’ or otherwise of Madu Onuorah, the Managing Director of the Abuja-based Global Upfront Newspapers has once more brought to the fore the issue of maltreatment of the citizens by security officers whose responsibility is to protect them.
Occasionally,some personnel of our security forces, from the Army to the Navy, the Air Force, police and the civil defence, overstep their clearly-stated boundaries, leading to maltreatment of innocent citizens.Though the unmusical sound of Onuorah’s debacle may have abated, the dust raised by the embarrassment will surely linger.What with the way and manner the unrehearsed heist was conducted.
As reported in the terse releases that broke the news, the perpetrators of the act did not help matters. With no warrant to brandish, let alone present, the red-eyed operatives did not only take the law into their hands, they broke it, and unrepentantly too.
Taking a man away from his house in front of his wife and children, citing an order of a court of competent jurisdiction, is condemnable. Put straight, it makes it appear as though the concerned policemen enacted it just because they were armed with guns bought with our tax money.
According to an early respondent to the travesty, it amounts to nothing but sheer gangsterism.
Family and business disputes that would have been settled during roundtable talks are instead used as subterfuge for unwarranted arrests, all in search of an avenue to attract huge bail bonds that ought to have been granted for free. That is after the initial deposit that must have guaranteed the operation.
The police are often caught abusing the privileges they are supposed to uphold. Thank God for the enhancement afforded civilian journalism by digital telephony. Not a day passes nowadays with one or two security personnelnot caught on camera embarrassing their fellow citizens. Most recently, one was filmed struggling for the steering wheel with an Uber driver.
These unfortunate developments are making Nigerians to wonder where they will run to for protection. Resilient to the core, most Nigerians have since turned into leaders of their own anti-vice squads. Like someone put it, ‘we now end up running our individual water corporations, power houses, sanitation agencies as well as armed forces.’
The most worrisome thing has been that we are not safe even in our homes. Yes! Just a spurious petition by an otherwise deranged antagonist and you are driven hundreds of kilometres against your will to explain yourself.
It has become all the more worrisome because the order for this would have been given by an officer on whom the country must have expended a huge amount of money for training. Security operatives must always respect the rights of the people and perform their duties in accordance with the laws of the land for peace and development of the country.
• By Isidore Emeka Uzoatu
