There is nobody in a democracy that is above the law; many supposedly influential persons try to pretend they are but the truth is that the arm of the law is too long to make anyone too far from its grip. However, its grip might be a little loose on some wrists, but it grips after all. I was baffled when I read in BBC this evening that Raymond Dokpesi had sued the State Security Service, SSS for damages of about N100 million ($660 000) because he was invited and asked some questions concerning his alleged involvement in the notorious 10/1 bombings in Abuja that claimed at least a dozen of Nigerians. According to the SSS and media, a questionable text message was seen in the phone of one of the suspects demanding that Mr. Dokpesi pays up the sum of N4mn and this supposed message was sent to his phone.
Now, I am not saying he should be branded a key suspect for just that message – after all this is 9ja and everything is possible; but it is not unnatural for the SSS to call him to at least clear his name and tender some explanations. Such actions and steps are what we established the top-echelon security body for – they are commissioned to make inquiries and investigations and no body, irrespective of the height of their political cum financial muscle should be out of their radar.
So why stretch the issue further? Mr Dokpesi was not detained up to the half of the maximum time allowable by the law (that’s about 24hrs), he was not physically harassed as you would expect in a less-media-sensitive or ordinary case in the conventional interrogatory procedures; he was not sent even behind the counter (talk more of bar)...I mean he was just called for questioning and that was basically on invitation – nobody came to arrest him. In fact, he was treated like a gentleman and respected player in the Nigerian politics and media. So what is he actually suing the SSS for?
If you are wise you will recognise unhealthy political propaganda when you see one. Usually they start from something that would have conventionally been ignored by the system but are often tied around people or occasion that the media is attracted to like flies are to sh*t. Then sentiments are addressed not issues; for instance Ciroma and associates would rather discuss how unsafe they feel under the leadership of President Jonathan after the bombings instead of how the culprits could be caught and future occurrence prevented.
Then another thing you will have to look out for is that the incident is nurtured to stay longer than necessary on our headlines but more importantly such headlines are hardly capable of informing the system on how the society can protect itself or address the issue. You would rather read, “Northern leaders Call for the Impeachment (or resignation of blah..blah..blah)after president’s talk on bombing”; “Group decries media Mogul detention on bombings and call on Jonathan to shorn politics by intimidation”; and so on. You will hardly read “10/1 bombing: Police Boss discusses plan”; or “Bombings: Ubumbum in police net”. Then after all sentiments are exhausted without result, some plotters try to drag along the incident using tools that were picked up in the process. The result is that the society is distracted from what they should be addressing and many good men are branded very bad names.
Now throughout the week you will notice that Dokpesi’s case will blind fold our papers and we will find ourselves dwelling so much on the bombings that we might not remember we were celebrating our 50th year of independence and that INEC has a lot of unaddressed issues for 2011. Such are tools of publicity and I am not surprised since famous media persons are involved in this case. However, I must say that I am not against anyone trying to clear their name but suing the SSS for doing their job is not just the way to go about it. Instead is just a good way to make more noise and hook up with cheap publicity. That’s if it is not a chase for extra N100Mn campaign cash. But I know most Nigerians wouldn’t mind sleeping with one eye open to make sure nobody sleep walks them away from the truth...that treachery must be uncapped!
