Show of Shame at the National Assembly And Other Acts of State Bringandry

By Okechukwu Nwanguma

The deployment of  the police and State Security Service to invade the National Assembly  in a Gestapo fashion, after the public outrage that greeted the earlier withdrawal of the Speaker's police details, is a clear exhibition of this government’s contempt for the rule of law in its desperation to remain in power. 

It is also a further evidence of its insensitivity to public opinion.

It was clearly an act of chichanery for the President to have requested the Speaker to reconvene the House from recess to consider an urgent matter bordering on  security only for the same President to lay ambush for the Speaker by deploying security agents to besiege the National Assembly, block the entrance to the gate and deny the Speaker and other House of Representatives members access to their Chambers - in a bid to impeach the Speaker by any means possible. 

It is shocking that the President could go to this extent of playing politics with the security of citizens, using the pretext of requesting the legislators to reconvene and urgently consider and approve his proposed extension, for the third time, of the emergency rule in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

While the dust raised by the show of shame at the National Assembly on Thursday November 20, 2014 was yet to settle, we were treated to yet another embarrassing act of state sponsored terrorism using the instrumentality of the self-same security agencies.

On Saturday November 22, 2014 operatives of the State Security Service and soldiers, stormed the opposition All Progressives Congress Party’s data centre in Lagos and ransacked the data centre, carted away items and arrested some data agents and security guards. 

The explanations offered by the security agencies and the authorities that sent them sounded very puerile, spurious and implausible. All evidence point to a clearly damned act of political desperation and victimisation of the opposition by the government.

Prior to all of the above, the same Nigeria police provided security cover for the Ekiti absurdity whereby 7 out of 26 legislators of Ekiti House of Assembly who recently defected to the ruling PDP from the opposition APC purported to have impeached the House of Assembly Speaker. 

This brazen constitutional breach  was masterminded and coordinated by the lawless and brash Ayo Fayose the recently sworn in Governor of Ekiti State. Fayose's conducts before and after he was sworn in as governor leave much to be desired of a leader in a civilsed and democratic clime.

Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, is the

National Coordinator of the Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria(NOPRIN)