Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has urged Nigerians not to be sentimental about the determination of President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle corruption.
To the governor, there is nothing wrong with the way the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, was handcuffed on Tuesday at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Oshiomhole, who spoke during a meeting with members of the new council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Benin, the state capital, on Wednesday, declared that since there was no sympathy from the public when those accused of lesser crimes were handcuffed by security agents, the handcuffing of Metuh was in order.
Oshiomhole said: “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, why should others not be in handcuffs? I have been to the police station several times and I see young men who rob not more than N500,000 in handcuffs, they are paraded and made to sit on the floor. Why should certain set of criminals be treated separately?
“When you all reported lavishly how under the former president, the former Defence 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, was shared by some people. Thanks to Buhari, those boys sentenced to death have been pardoned. They have been given various terms of imprisonment which I applaud and I think even that one should further be reviewed. They should be freed.
“Now, those who shared that money, this is not the usual security money, this is a special appropriation to fight Boko Haram. $2.1 billion, people just shared it, everybody was using their sons, 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 handcuffs 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 Nigerians 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 well being? 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.”
