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Operation Crush: Otti turning Abia to crime scene – group *Says, gov must allow residents breathe
“How could you sack thousands of civil servants, unnecessarily delay or stop the salaries of many more, disband revenue collectors and hundreds of able-bodied park managers/minders etc without any alternative or even palliative measures to alleviate their now horrendous conditions?”
This was the argument with which Abia Renaissance Movement (ARM), pushed back against the launch of Operation Crush, a new security outfit in the state, by Abia State Governor, Alex Otti on Tuesday, while warning that the move was not only impulsive, but capable of creating more problems in the state.
Railing against the initiative, which was launched at the Michael Okpara auditorium complex in Umuahia, the state capital, the group, in a statement, signed by by its Convener, Ukachukwu Chinonso and Secretary-General, Maria Nwokoma, described it as one of “Alex Otti’s many show-offs which have pushed the state to the brink of total collapse.”
The group: “In forming Operation Crush, Otti has admitted our earlier cries that his draconian policies were frustrating Abians and pushing a number of them into crime. While Operation Crush would have been desirable, such security outfits are fit for only states that have been overrun by terrorists and bandits, and not one that Alex Otti, through his ill-advised policies, has turned to a den of armed robbers and kidnappers, crimes that are still within the purview of the police and the DSS to deal with.
“We view Operation Crush as the unnecessary militarisation of our state which only recently was adjudged one of the most peaceful and secure states in Nigeria. That was before Alex Otti assumed office. But since his assumption of office, things have gone southwards and Otti has himself to blame for this.
“We reiterate our stand, that unless Otti wishes to use the new security outfit to achieve sinister purposes of going after his political opponents, a trait he has brazenly demonstrated in his time in office, he should disband the new security outfit immediately and fashion out a more robust, friendlier and community-based policing system that will stamp out crime and criminality in our dear state without instilling fears in our already traumatised citizens.
“While we deeply appreciate the great works our soldiers have been doing in protecting our territorial integrity from aggressors and the immeasurable sacrifices they have been making in stamping out terrorism and banditry in parts of the country where they exist, we wish to state that perpetually saturating our streets with their presence will be counter-productive.
“We also observed during the launch of Operation Crush that one more out of Alex Otti’s many promises to the people has been flagrantly discarded. In the early days of his assumption of office, Otti made a show of using Innoson Motors for his inauguration parade and as one of his official cars, and promised to patronise locally made items to promote our local entrepreneurs.
“We are therefore dismayed that the cars Mr Alex Otti purchased for the new security outfit are all of a foreign brand. This is just one practical example of how the governor has been ruling Abia by impulse instead of following his own promises to the people. It is just another instance of our earlier description of this government as that of propaganda, half-truths, outright lies, vendetta, vindictivenes, fake and failed promises.
“How will our people get jobs, how will they prosper when their government patronises foreign brands instead of quality locally made goods? It is on this basis that we charge Mr Alex Otti to quit his grandstanding and put policies in place that will ensure that all those arbitrarily disengaged from their legitimate sources of livelihood by his government have their debilitating conditions alleviated.
“The abandonment of governance in pursuit of perceived political opponents is a distraction that has left the state gasping for breath. As it is, Abians can no longer breathe, crushing them with Operation Crush when there could have been a more robust, elaborate and effective security strategy to curtail the rising wave of crime in the state is too much showboating from a government that has already won for itself the reputation of being the most listless in the history of Abia State.”
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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