Sunday 28 October 2012

Owolabi Adenola David: The Aluu in us all ..


1985, Three young men , Lawal Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) were taken to bar-beach. Those days that was the place where condemned criminals faced the firing squad. What was the offence of these three young men you might ask?.They had been found guilty of drug trafficking. Death penalty for drug traffickers was a decree that the Buhari/Idiagbon military junta introduced after they had seized power from Shagari. There was public outcry,people pleaded for their lives to be spared. International organisations jointly called for the halt in their execution but to no avail. Buhari insisted that discipline must be instilled! death was the way?
That faithful morning they were led with their hands and legs bound. Eye witnesses say when they were tied to the spot in which they were to be shot,the three of them started singing. They sang a religious song that made the excited onlookers cry. As the bullets ripped through their body,hitting vital organs and their blood splattered through the air,Nigeria killed Nigerians. The most controversial of the three killed was Bernard Ogedengbe,whose crime was committed before it even became a capital offence that carried the death penalty. Buhari refused,he didn’t bulge.
5th march 1986.
Mamman Jiya vatsa was executed under charges that he plotted a coup. You will probably be asking yourself why this should be included in this piece,well he was given the death penalty by Babangida and they had been best friends. Infact they attended the same schools,married friends. For pete’s sake Mamman was Babangida’s bestman at his wedding. For him to have been executed without enough evidence shocked many. Nigeria killed Vasta.
19th october 1986.
Dele giwa one of the greatest investigative journalist Nigeria has ever had got a visit from the federal government,it was a mail and was handed to Billy,Giwa’s son. Billy handed the parcel to his father. The parcel “bore the seal of the Presidency, was marked: “To be opened by addressee only.”  Receiving the parcel, Giwa said “this must be from the Presidency.”
Giwa had placed the parcel on his laps while it was being opened. The parcel exploded and torn Dele giwa body into shreds from his lower abdomen down. Giwa’s died on the way to the hospital. Nigeria killed Giwa.
Fast forwarding to october 2012,the social media went alight with the news that some undergraduates from the university of port harcourt had been killed. Different reasons for their lynching was described by blogs,tatafos and imaginations. They were Lloyd, Tekena, Ugonna and Chidiaka. They were killed in a place called Aluu. After much investigation and interviews, it was concluded that they were neither cultists nor thieves like was earlier stated. They were just young boys,friends and family who had visited a debtor to collect their money but had solicited the help of a known ‘hard guy’ in the campus to help them with the easily collection of the money. The debtor on seeing them and imagining what their intentions might be, cried out calling them thieves. The Aluu peeps rushed out of their houses to apprehend the so called ‘thieves’ but on realising the matter was out of hand, .Mr ‘hard guy’ had brandished a weapon and escaped,leaving the four guys at the mercy of the Aluu’ans. The rest is they say is history…
This is where it gets interesting, it was not the first time a thief or someone labelled a thief had been killed by being burnt in Nigeria. Infact its a frequent occurrence. I remember as a primary school student in lagos,Festac town seeing many burnt corpses lying on the street of festac. I remember clearing being in a ‘danfo bus’ with my mum on our way to mile2 and just before the bus-stop,seeing a thief was already being saddled with the tire ready to be ignited,my mum had scolded me to look at her and not remove my gaze or I will be dealt with seriously. I could hear some moaning in the bus, a sigh here and there. Some people said ‘that’s what’s good for them’, while others condemned. I thought my mum was looking at me too but looking closer at her eyes, she was blank. Out of her lips came ‘Jesu….Jesu…Jesu kristi’.
So was it because they were students?, are the lives of students more valuable than illiterates?,Or was it because they were young?,should only the old be killed?, or was it because they were innocent?, should all the guilty be burnt to death?
We condemn the people from Aluu like we are innocent ourselves, like the Aluu people invented that form of punishment. How many people participated in the killing of those. guys?..maximum 13 or lemme say 15. Yet we condemn the entire village as murderous people. A thief was killed in a market in warri just this past week,let’s condemn those in warri!. Let’s condemn those in Amuwo odofin for many have died there. Let’s condemn those in Aba!, please we should not forget Funtua in katsina. Let’s condemn ourselves. We have failed each other,we have not defended our neighbours,our brothers. If the crime committed by the people in Aluu was that they didn’t stop the killing but looked on while those young men were being killed then we are all guilty of that offence.
By God, Buhari is guilty of that offence and idiagbon, his vice. Babangida is guilty of that offence so also maryam his wife. ACN,PDP,CPC and co that hire thugs are guilty. We are all guilty of not speaking out against oppression not just to us but to people around us. We go along with the tide as soon as we realise that we haven’t been affected directly,but hello! Take a peek outside Nigeria,u will see that Nigerians have all been judged. We are both the oppressors and the oppressed. We are both the killers and the dead,u and I!
Our parents didn’t fight for their peers then :Giwa,Ogedengbe,Vatsa and co were killed and after a while the pain becomes jokes and gists around bars and hotels. Schools and churches. We are following in their footsteps. Cynthia Osokogu’s death is already being forgotten,how many of us are following the case of the killers in court? How many of us ask questions and demand answers? The Aluu4 will very well be swept under the carpet soon just like Otedola n Rilwans bribery case while you and I await the new Iphone to be launched or Davido’s new video.
We all have a drop of Aluu in us,but by writing this piece I have reduced mine a little.
What will you do?
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