Why Chief Ralph Uwazuruike's Case Should Be Dismissed

Some few days after former president Olusegun Obasanjo had ordered the command of Colonel Agbabiaka to go ahead and demolish Odi in November 1999, over the killing of 12 policemen by Ijaw youths in that little Bayelsa town, a deadly gang had already emerged all around the Lagos metropolis, causing havoc, maiming and destroying properties.

The gang: Ganiyu Adams faction of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), a well-composed notorious group of nihilists and hoodlums who have unleashed murder and mayhem in the name of fighting armed robbers, and, also, demanding a just cause--if only their needs could be met--the right to self-reliance. The entire Lagos had been turned into a state of empire and anarchy for many complicated reasons. First, then Governor Bola Tinubu who supposedly should be the chief security officer of the state, had been blamed by the presidency for not doing much about the OPC mayhem and what it has cost the state in terms of lives lost and an estimated staggering amount in the millions of Naira, if not billions in the nation's currency.

At the beginning of January 2000, the new millenium, Obasanjo, worried and restless, had to write Tinubu a personal note regarding the "rapidly deteriorating security situation" in Lagos State where he (Tinubu) is the governor, and that Tinubu could not afford to let the entire state be overrun by hoodlums led by Adams' OPC faction which is being seen as a threat to the state and national security. Adams' deadly gang had turned "hubs" like Ketu, Ajegunle, Mushin, Lagos Island and its environs with what one Tunde A. Olowu in a Tell magazine advertorial had called "theatres of war."

Obasanjo, in his threat to use executive powers with "due consultation" of the National Assembly to shut Lagos State's democratic fabric down by declaring an emergency rule, had no idea what was about to happen. He had presumed his threat would move Tinubu to swiftly act. Tinubu threw back, though, warning OBJ to stop playing nasty politics with OPC, that OPC was not the problem of political instability in the state, and that he should shut up and "get real" with politics of the day. It was a brutal "power show" which eventually had Tinubu smoking with in-your-face attitude to OBJ, that the Yoruba nation would stand behind Adams deadly squad, no matter what.

Before any form of political tussle could erupt, OBJ had already been concerned about what was unfolding and in the event his presidency declares a state of emergency in Lagos or anywhere in the West, that the Yoruba nation would rise to the occasion and bid goodbye to the entrapment called Nigeria. As if what has triggered the state of confusion and fight over political supremacy between the presidency and security concerns with Tinubu was not enough drama in the affairs of state, there happened to be a clash in Bariga, Lagos. That engagement between members of OPC and the police force took the life of Afolabi Amao, the divisional police officer who commanded the Shomolu Police Station. Amao's body was littered into the Lagos Lagoon. The drum beat of war has just begun.

OBJ had preplanned to turn Lagos into another Odi, that is, if Tinubu does not arrest the issue appropriately. But in one of Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors meeting, Tinubu was given a thumbs up, "given the constitutional limitations of governors in many areas." The clock was tickling and invasion of Lagos seemingly imminent including the sack of Alausa where the state lawmakers, the governor's team of kitchen cabinets, lobbyists and fat cats conduct business related to the state.

OBJ did not know what had hit him. The Yoruba nation including the leader of Afenifere, Senator Abraham Adesanya, were not in the mood to play cat and mouse with OBJ. They warned that another Odi episode would not be tolerated in Yorubaland, and that the OPC would square off with OBJ's federal forces. The challenge was real and more honest, and one could foresee another Odi unfolding. The roundtable had been presented a totally different agenda and OBJ had backed down after several warnings that an invasion of Yorubaland by a sitting Yoruba president would not be entertained, and would spell doom for the entire Yoruba nation. In Tell magazine's Forum of January 31, 2000, Lagos-based lawyer Femi Fani-Kayode sounded a serious warning to the presidency. Fani-Kayode writes;

Let the Obasanjo administration be under no illusion: we will not sit by idly and tolerate an 'Odi massacre' or a 'Choba mass rape,' anywhere in Yorubaland. If it ever happens, the OPC will be forced to form an armed wing of young warriors and together with other groups in Yorubaland, we will violently resist the evil intentions of our collective detractors. The militancy of the OPC will then be childs play compared to what will befall Nigeria.

Apparently, on behalf of a strong Yoruba backing, OPC won in this war of words in what had been prefight ramblings between the presidency and the Yoruba nation. Lagos was not invaded, after all, and Adams' OPC annihilation of innocent and defenceless citizens continued apace.

OBJ had ordered a shoot-at-sight at any OPC hoodlum or nihilist suspected to be a potential threat to civil society. Also, in a battle ready move, state police commissioner, Mike Okiro had gone to work to slug it out with OPC in the deadly gangs criminal activities in the state.

In February 2000, Okiro received a "distress" call that armed bandits were on the rampage at Onitire in the Surulere area of Lagos. In a fierce engagement with the armed robbers the police force claimed to be OPC members, one of the bandits was gunned down, the other seriously wounded while three escaped. Okiro claimed victory in that shoot-out, but OPC fired back immediatly issuing a "seven day ultimatum to the Lagos Police Command to stop killing their members, whom they claim the police labels as armed robbers," even though Adams had been on the lam and on the top list of the nation's police command. The Yoruba nation had been behind Adams, and had seen the whole lot of problems within the national political scene, pointing out OPC as a Yoruba issue and should be handled the Yoruba way.

Yes, OPC had been a Yoruba issue because while military tanks were rolled as OBJ's military brigade stormed Okigwe Township on that fateful Friday afternnon, December 1, 2000, in search of Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) leader, Ralph Uwazuruike, and while the Igbo elite groups--Ohanaeze, World Igbo Congress and the rest that claims to be a better managed Igbo organization than the others--could not do anything, absolutely nothing to defend Uwazuruike and his non-violent movement in the quest to actualize Biafra, Adams' deadly gang were busy defacing innocent citizens with acid and pillaging wherever they operate. Adams had a great ride and enjoyed every aspect of Yoruba leadership in protecting him and the Yoruba nation.

Enter the Ijaw nationalist Muhajid Dokubo-Asari, the local gang leader whose militancy and threats to blow up every oil installations in the Niger-Delta continues to scare the people in that region. His grudge was that his people have not gained from the region's oil wealth which justified his taking up to arms to fight the establishment. His call to arms scared the presidency which had OBJ send his personal plane to fly Dokubo-Asari to Abuja for peace talks.

After a failed negotiation for ceasefire, Asari and his thousands of followers under arms continued to kidnap, destroying properties and blowing up oil installations in the region which did tip the oil price coupled with political instability. However, after series of threats, the Rivers State Police Command arrested Asari on September 19, 2005. Mass protests in Port Harcourt by Ijaw militant youths followed his arrest and civil unrest became the order of the day.

As it happened, the four movements (two of them notoriously deadly) OPC (Frederick Fasheun Faction), OPC (Ganiyu Adams faction) MASSOB and Asari's militant group that allegedly gave the presidency headache, were rounded up on a different time frame and slammed without trial. For the record, MASSOB did not bear arms. Its movement was non-violent. Fasheun was released on health grounds. Adams was released last December with the case struck out by the judge for lack of jurisdiction. Dokubo-Asari was released with no further charges and not to appear in court for trial. Before his release, the Ijaw nation issued out a press release demanding the militant's unconditional release along with other detainees including Uwazuruike of MASSOB when President Umar Yar'Adua gave conditions for release. According to the release;

The Ijaw Nation is justifiably aggrieved on account of the continuing egregious and callous violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of Dokubo-Asari and other Ijaw Rights Activists, who have been imprisoned indefinitely without trial by the malicious invocation and abuse of the powers of the Nigerian State. It is particularly discriminatory and unacceptable that several months after the unconditional release of the OPC leaders, Fredrick Fasheun and Gani Adams, the Nigerian government continues to detain Dokubo-Asari of the NDPVF and Ralph Uwazurike of MASSOB.

On October 26, 2007, Justice Binta Nyako granted Uwazuruike bail to enable him take care of his mother's burial and that he must report to Imo police two times in a week until his trial date set for January 28, 2008. This is where the injustice comes in and typical of a kangaroo court, why would his colleagues charged for the same "crime" be walking out free of charge while he is asked to return to court for a case that has no meaning? When Frederick Fasheun was released on health grounds, was he asked to be reporting to his local police command until he gets well, probably? When the militant Adams was released unconditionally, was he also asked to be reporting to his local police station to make sure he is going by the rules and not annihilating people anymore? Or when Dokubo was released, was he under house arrest until his case in court is finally resolved? If Uwazuruike, Adams, Fasheun and Dokubo Asari were charged with treasonably felonies, why should Uwazuruike be asked to come back to court while Adams and Fasheun were granted unconditional release?

When Uwazuruike returns to court in Abuja on January 28, 2008, the judge should dismiss the case, like Adams, for lack of jurisdiction to achieve equity and fairness rather than a sham legal procedure bent on achieving a pre-planned outcome.