Human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has lambasted the federal government for the arrest of the Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho accusing them of chasing shadows.
Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria advised the government to pursue substance instead of shadow so as to rescue the nation from the claws of kidnappers, bandits, and terrorists.
The senior lawyer made the appeal on Tuesday in a statement issued in reaction to the arrest of Igboho in Benin Republic.
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The statement reads in part ‘The FG appears supersonically effective and efficacious when it comes to arresting and repatriating dissenters and challengers of its morbid nepotic and sectionalisitc government.
‘The same government paradoxically appears absymally weak and hopelessly helpless when it comes to fighting AK-47 wielding armed bandits, Boko Haram and other deadly insurgents, including ransom-taking kidnappers who are almost kidnapping the very heart and soul of Nigeria on a daily basis.
‘The Nigerian Nation appears captured by non-state actors.
‘To me, this lopsided template demonstrates acute intolerance and ambivalence. It shows self-contradiction. It shows an inclination towards enforcing laws against certain people, against certain classes of people, while at the same time turning away the other eye in enforcing laws against the other preferred and pampered set of people.
‘Such does not make a nation grow. Such does not make democracy work. Such does not build confidence and inclusiveness, the very reasons for the Igbohos and Nnmdi Kanus of this world. Such does not enjoin patriotism and building of nationhood.
‘The same government that is suddenly effective in the case of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho have never been able to capture kidnappers, armed bandits and boko haram that are daily ravaging us, turning Nigeria into sprawling field of human carnage.
‘They take ransom. Innocent school children are paid for. Where is the same government when kidnappers are demanding that the parents of kidnapped children should now be feeding them in their kidnap dens?
‘But, it suddenly becomes effective and audacious when it comes to arresting and even ambushing and attacking in their very homes, self-determination activists and crusaders. I am not impressed with this at all.
‘The government may thump its chest for temporary gains. But, does this solve the problem? see this as merely pursuing butterflies while the house is on fire. Recall history: Major Kaduna Nzeogwu Chukwuma. Isaac Adaka Boro, Ken Saro-Wiwa. The Ogoni 5. Are we out of the woods? I do not think so. Or, do you?’ he queried.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK