With a
history of rank sleaze purportedly behind it, the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) may not provoke so much sympathy as it writhes in the throes of
self-inflicted intrigues and external conspiracies. That is why when its
members are hounded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for
their complicity in corruption that allegedly besmeared the government of
former President Goodluck Jonathan, there is no much outrage by the citizens.
The
constant refrain is that they are paying for their sins. After all, they are
responsible for the economic pain of the citizens having unconscionably looted
the treasury. They are responsible for the prolongation of the war on Boko
Haram that has claimed many lives having diverted the funds meant for buying
the weapons to fight the insurgents. The citizens do not really bother that
these cases are still in court and that we cannot determine the extent of the
culpability of the accused yet.
But what we
have obviously failed to realise is that the more we uncritically adulate the
government and its arbitrariness, the more it degenerates into dictatorship.
Now from indiscriminate arrests and incarcerations, the government and its
agencies have gone a step further. They have engaged in a wanton liquidation of
the citizens. The latest victim of this government’s brutality is citizen
Desmond Nunugwo.
We have not been told by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) that he was a chieftain of the PDP. Neither have we been told that he
was one of those billions of naira have been traced to in the course of the
anti-corruption campaign. All we know is that he was only a chief protocol
officer to the minister of state for defence. Yet, the EFCC recently detained
him in its custody. The family was neither told of the charges against him nor
was he taken to court. While waiting for the EFCC to disclose the charges
against him, the family only learnt that Nunugwo who was never sick was dead in
the custody of the commission six hours after being taken in.
No matter
how much the EFCC tries to cover up its tracks, it is glaring that it is
complicit in the death of Nunugwo. The EFCC cannot deny its complicity when it
has consistently demurred when challenged to undertake an autopsy on Nunugwo
two months after his death. The family may be right after all in accusing the
police of playing the EFCC’s script as the two agencies have concluded that
Nunugwo died naturally. The two agencies reached this conclusion without
conducting an autopsy. And this is despite that the hospital where Nunugwo died
has expressed its readiness to conduct the autopsy by forwarding the
requirements for the exercise to the EFCC and the police.
Since the
police have already taken a position, they cannot be entrusted with an
investigation into the death of Nunugwo. And despite the promise of the
Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to investigate the
case, the government must demonstrate its sincerity by accepting the position
of the family that an independent investigator should be given this
responsibility.
It must be clear to the citizens that if the family of Nunugwo is
left alone to seek justice, the government would only end up frustrating the
case. Thus what is needed to secure justice for Nunugwo and prevent similar
atrocities is for the civil society and other citizens to rally round the
family of the deceased. We must not only insist that justice is done on the
case by making the perpetrators of the murder to get their deserved sanctions,
we must also ask for compensation for the family of the bereaved. After all,
the children that have been deprived of their father need to have education and
be cared for like other children. It is because the EFCC like the police and
other security agencies are not appropriately sanctioned that they continue to
kill innocent citizens for not giving a N50 bribe.
