Engaging in hide and seek with my five-year-old son brings immense joy. As he conceals himself, I adhere to the traditional counting ritual before initiating my search. To sustain his excitement, I pretend to be unaware of his location, even when it’s partially exposed. I pose the question, ‘where is this boy?’ to prolong the suspense.
Meanwhile he is there in his “hiding” place chuckling and quite convinced that he has done a good job of hiding from his daddy. So as a patronizing daddy I only find when I want to find him otherwise the game will go awry.
This hide and seek game I play with my son is exactly what the Nigeria Police is playing in the Edo governorship election coming on Saturday 21st September.
Many PDP supporters have been arrested supposedly in connection with the death of a police officer at the airport during a shoot out carried out by APC under the very watchful eyes of the Police Force who were everywhere around the APC goons, thugs, Lions and Tigers.
Whereas the world saw live videos of APC boys brandishing dangerous weapons including pumping action guns and cutlasses, the Nigeria Police like the game I like to play with my son is pretending not to have seen the videos of these gun trotting APC thugs and have preferred instead in the name of a phantom investigation connected to the same airport road saga shooting wherein a police officer lost his life gone ahead to arrest PDP supporters who were no where near the airport as at the time of the said incidence.
How do you factor a one sided spate of arrest of PDP members when the said police officer who lost his life was last seen around APC goons. Even when the said police officer was still alive and could have been saved if he were rushed to the nearest hospital which was just a few meters away from the crazy mob that APC organized ( something the APC goons who were ubiquitously available didn’t do) the police clearly doesn’t consider all those actions as criminal and illegal.
No doubt that the Nigeria Police has a duty to protect lives and property (something that it must do professionally), it must demonstrate clearly that it is not serving the interest of one political party something which the PDP isn’t sure of at the moment. If the Inspector General of Police and the Force PRO say that the arrest of PDP members is in connection with the shooting at airport road a few months ago how come they didn’t see the videos and pictures that went viral of the Kabakas and his brother or that of Ebo Stone and his gang. We even saw and heard from one Emmanuel Egogo, who boasted in a live video that “dead body go surplus for this election” while in company of one self styled Apostle Kassy who equally made dangerous and inciting statements.
Suppose for instance the Inspector General of Police pretends he didn’t see the viral videos of gun trotting APC thugs, a very popular daily news print published the pictures of the suspected assailants in a full page of their credible newspaper and yet the police took no action and haven’t so done till tomorrow. The police instead find it convenient to arrest PDP members for allegations that the APC orchestrated. Isn’t that ironic or even intentional?
So like the hide and seek game I play with my son the Nigeria Police is pretending not to see the leg of the APC showing from behind the door. It is instead looking away so that the APC can chuckle behind the door like my five year son when he thinks he has hidden very well not knowing that its I the father who doesn’t want to end the game early because that may make the game uninteresting and short for him.
So let the police and its APC accomplice continue to play their game. One thing, however, is sure and it is that no action however executed can stop the defeat of the APC nor the determination of the Edo people to vote Dr Asue Ighodalo and Barr Osarodion Ogie of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as Governor and Deputy Governor of Edo State come September 21st 2024.
This is a statement of fact and not just a promise.
Rev Olu Martins is the Deputy Director General (Media and Publicity) for the Asue Ogie Campaign Management Council
