Buhari govt sympathetic to bandits, ruthless on Kanu, Ighoho —Ozekhome

Human rights lawyer and activist, Mike Ozekhome (SAN) has lambasted the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government, saying while it is sympathetic and weak in handling bandits, it is ruthless and merciless on the leader of proscribed Igbo separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, and Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho.

Ozekhome who reacted to the arrest of Igboho in Cotonou, Benin Republic, in a statement on Tuesday sighted by Ripples Nigeria, said the government is only chasing shadows by dissipating energy in pursuing agitators instead of concentrating efforts at tackling escalating insecurity and banditry in the country

The fiery lawyer added that while the Buhari administration “abandoned AK-47-wielding armed bandits, Boko Haram terrorists, and other deadly insurgents, including ransom-taking kidnappers, it is running after Igboho and Kanu.”

“The Federal government appears supersonically effective and efficacious when it comes to arresting and repatriating dissenters and challengers of its morbid nepotic and sectionalistic government.

“The same government paradoxically appears abysmally 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.

Read also: Buhari’s govt trying to cover atrocities with Twitter ban – Ozekhome

“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 Nnamdi Kanus of this world. Such does not enjoin patriotism and the building of nationhood.

“The same government that is suddenly effective in the case of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho has never been able to capture kidnappers, armed bandits, and Boko Haram that are daily ravaging us, turning Nigeria into a sprawling field of human carnage.

“They take ransom. Innocent schoolchildren 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?

“I see this as merely pursuing butterflies while the house is on fire ” he lamented.

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