Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
An activist and Coordinator of Recover Nigeria Project, Comrade Osita Obi, has urged Governor Chukwuma Soludo to ensure the prosecution of anti-tout officers who brutalised one Mr Wilfred Ikechukwu Ezike, popularly called Mgbiligba Anambra.
A viral video which captured where the anti-tout group were manhandling Mr Ezike with a pestle, had elicited widespread public outcry in the recent past.
However, Obi, who spoke in Awka insisted that the state government must expose and bring to book the officers that were involved in such brutality.
He expressed worry that after a long while, government was yet to fulfill its promise that it would expose as well as punish anti-tout officers who used pestle to damage Mgbiligba’s legs, in a most barbaric manner, as they brutalised him in the viral video without recourse to his fundamental rights as a human being.
Obi maintained that such callousness and treachery should not be swept under the carpet and that it was not enough to merely issue a statement without corresponding actions.
Obi said he was not criticising or running the government down but that the practice in the video was not healthy and does not portray a just and a democratic society.
He said he has made it categorically clear that the Anti-Touting Squad was a noble concept by the government but they must operate within the ambit of the law, adding that the people that perpetrated the dastardly act in the viral video must be exposed and brought to book.
Osita Obi also said that if government has anything against Mgbiligba, it must bring it to the fore so that people will know and not making efforts to sweep such inhumane treatment under the carpet, which according to him, cannot guarantee a healthy society and good governance.
Obi maintained that the government should live up to its statement which it made through the Homeland Affairs Commissioner and Information Commissioner where it assured Ndi-Anambra that the predators of Mgbiligba will be fished out and made to face the full wrath of the law.
He said he had made several attempts to get in touch with the Homeland Affairs Commissioner through text messages and phone calls but all to no avail as the Commissioner won’t take or return his calls and won’t also reply to his text messages.
As a result, he decided to resort to the press so as to have the matter completely trashed out, emphasising that the government must fulfill its promise of exposing Anti-tout officers involved in the obnoxious act and bring them to justice.
He said if Mgbiligba committed any crime to deserve such animalistic and insane treatment from the Anti-tout officers, government should prove it and not to shield erring SASA officers from the wrath of the law, stressing that the culprits must be exposed and brought to justice.
Meanwhile, Commissioner for Homeland Security, Mr. Chikodiri Anara, when contacted to find out what efforts government has made to fulfill its promise of exposing and punishing Anti-tout officers who brutalised Mgbiligba with pestle in a viral video, the Commissioner said government has worked on the matter and all the needful completely handled.
