The Edo
State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has backed Tuesday’s handcuffing of Olisa
Metuh, the national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, as he
appeared before a court, saying there was nothing wrong with restraining Mr.
Metuh.
Speaking
during a meeting with the new council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo
State, in Benin, Tuesday,
the governor said if those accused of lesser crimes are handcuffed and paraded
by the police and get no sympathy from the public, Mr. Metuh and others,
accused of diverting huge public funds, should not have sympathy.
Here
is a transcript of the governor’s remarks, according to his spokesperson, Peter
Okhiria.
“I
want to appeal to the media to join President Buhari in fighting the
anti-corruption war because if we don’t, and we allow these people to harass
the president to silence, all of us are in trouble.
“I
saw some headlines querying why should Metuh be in handcuffs. If people who
steal he-goats, dried grass cutters are in handcuffs; I have been to the police
station several times and I see young men who rob not more than N500,000 naira
in handcuffs, they are paraded and made to seat on the floor. Why should
certain set of criminals be treated as if they are not suspected criminals and
serious crimes at that?
“When
you all reported lavishly how under the former president, the former defense
chief set up a military tribunal to try soldiers who ran away from battle field
and they were condemned to death, it was only Femi Falana who was consistent in
fighting their case. Those are Nigerians who were to be killed for running away
because they couldn’t confront a Boko Haram that was well armed while they were
asked to go and fight with their bare hands and we were told that weapons,
ammunitions and everything had been provided”.
“When
Borno Governor said, ‘look, our Armed Forces are fighting with bare hands’, he
was told to shut up. Now it is clear from current revelations that the money
that would have been used to arm these young men who joined the army with pride
and who on a good day have the courage to fight not only at home but abroad,
but because they didn’t have arms, they ran away. They were sentenced to death.
Thanks to Buhari, some have been commuted now to various terms of imprisonment
which I applaud and I think even that one should further be reviewed, they
should summit their uniform but remain free people.
“Now,
those who shared that money, this is not the usual security money, this is
special appropriation to fight Boko Haram, $2.1 billion, people just shared it,
everybody was using their son, co-opting young children into this while other
people’s children were sentenced to death. And anybody who partakes in that and
they put him in handcuffs, they say, why should he be in handcuff because he is
an elite and the media will report it without also showing us pictures of some
Nigerians whose fathers are not known, but are not less Nigerian than any of
us, who are always not only in handcuffs but are put on the floor in various
police stations and paraded even before they are charged to court and we all
look at them and turn to the next pictures, it doesn’t attract a commentary.
“Why
should some criminals just be celebrated even when we all can feel the amount
of damage, the consequences of their rascality on our collective wellbeing. I
think the media should support the President. This is not President Buhari’s
fight, and you know he had reminded us that if we don’t kill corruption, it
will kill us. Now corruption is fighting back.”
-Premium Times
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