Until the
October 1 twin bomb explosions within the neighbourhood of the Eagle Square,
Abuja, venue of the 50th independence anniversary celebration of the
nation, which abruptly ended the lives and therefore the aspirations of a dozen
youthful and productive Nigerians and left scores of others injured and with
irreparable damages to property worth millions of naira, not a few persons in the country had concluded
that the late president Yar'Adua’s amnesty deal, still been vigorously pursued
by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, had sapped the MEND, or rather, the remnants of it
that rejected the deal, of the capacity for violence of high impact,
considering the calibre of those that renounced their membership of the group. The group was therefore expected to
re-organize as paper-based intellectual activist or emancipators of the
Niger-Delta region.
As it has
turned out, the amnesty deal, it would seem, only allowed the group to shed
weight— it foot soldiers due to a combination of factors, were increasing at an
unmanageable rate—and re-organize as a compact organization, and take their
operations out of the creeks and direct confrontations with the armed forces,
into the cities with a god-like invisibility to the security forces. one of the
easily re-callable attack after this restructuring exercise for which the group
claimed responsibility the car bombings that took place in Warri and within the
Delta State government property venue of a post-amnesty seminar organised by a
media house. It reason for the attack according to the spokesman was a
statement credited to the Governor of the state, Dr. Uduaghan that the group was
non-existent or, dead. The attack therefore was to disprove his assertion.
For it
latest attack, it gave the disequilibrium between the economic contribution of
the Niger-Delta area, whose interest it claims to represent, and the physical development
of same, as it reason. A raison d'être
that has not been saluted by anyone including the elders and youths of the
niger delta areas, as enough justification for the sacrilege it committed
against the nation. And there can never be a good enough reason to justify the
needless carnage that the re-branded and more deadlier MEND visited on innocent
Nigerians and their dependents more so, when the correction of the said
injustice is now in the able hands of one of the victims: Dr. GoodLuck
Jonathan.
The nations
entire security organ including even the red cross, Boys Scout and such other
organization must therefore go out and up turn every inch of the nation’s land
mass, water and air space and beyond, unto other territories to get at these
elements; including those the security people claimed are their prominent
sponsors. And after a thorough investigation devoid of interference from any
quarters, those found culpable should receive the death sentence. Neither kid
nor velvety glove is desirable in dealing with the issue.
It is
alleluia that just as it is in America that there are already arrested suspects
in connection with the evil act; unlike was the case in the Warri explosion
which seems to have produced no suspect. Amongst the suspects is high chief
Raymond Dokpesi, the chairman of the Daar Group, owners of AIT and Raypower Fm.
Irrespective of the protestation of the IBB campaign organisation of which he
is the Director-General, the security services must turn him inside out; and if
the need be, they must pack the entire staff of the campaign organisation to
their office, for interrogation. It cannot be otherwise when juxtaposed against
SMS messages said to have been found in the cell phones of some of the arrested
suspects.
He has gone
in and out of the SSS office and that is how it should be. They must view him
as a prime suspect first, in the light of the material available to them and
then, as innocent, as everyone who knows something about information technology
and how it works would dismiss the SMS messages as been of no consequence. Anyone
that is interest in computing knows that with soft-wares, that are easily
available and incredibly cheap, one can do almost anything on earth. His cell
phone number could have been obtained for the purpose of delivering the
messages. If it is about sending SMS with his number, I am sure this is
possible with simple soft-wares. Therefore, the SMS might mean nothing more
than somebody, somewhere trying to capitalize on the unfortunate situation to
make political gains.
The
security services must therefore, deploy a bigger net. They must mistrust the
lead as it is too indiscreet for an exercise as risky as the bombing of a
federal government property and function with heads of government of other
nations present. Considering the consequences
of failure of such an enterprise, I will readily excuse chief Dokpesi from such
indiscretion. Issues like payment need not go through an SMS as it would have
been agreed upon as to who was going to do what. All the same, you never can
tell, even mafia bosses do leaves stupid trails, sometimes.
Ilobi
Austin is a public commentator and writes for www.nigeriavillagesquare.com
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