The Police High Command last week declared wanted Kassim Afegbua, spokesman of the former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd).
Jimoh Moshood, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPPRO), in a statement said the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, had has ordered Afegbua’s immediate arrest “for making false statements, injurious falsehood, defamation of character and for act capable of inciting public disturbance throughout the country.”
Moshood in the statement, was quoted to have said: “He (Afegbua) is therefore declared wanted by the Nigeria Police Force and should report at the nearest police station anywhere he is in the country.”
The police statement came more than 24 hours after online reports had said the police were looking for Afegbua after he issued the widely circulated statement on the state of the nation, that was credited to Babangida.
In the statement, Babangida criticised Buhari’s leadership and urged him to step aside for a new generation of leaders in 2019. Babangida’s statement, came few days after former President Olusegun Obasanjo had in an open letter, asked Buhari not to contest the 2019 presidential election, as his administration has been lack-lustre.
However, Babangida was alleged to have disowned the statement and purportedly issued another one, said to have been signed by him, in which he allegedly canvassed for the realignment of political forces for the emergence of two strong parties in the country.
Afegbua however insisted in a television programme that he had the full authorisation of General Babangida to issue the statement. Babangida also spoke to a newspaper, confirming that his first statement issued by Afegbua was authentic.
However, the matter took a different turn when last Tuesday Afegbua slammed a N1 billion suit on the Nigeria Police Force, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, and some media houses.
Afegbua said he was suing the police to protest alleged harassment and persecution. The case was filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja on Tuesday through his lawyer. The suit number is FHC/ABJ/CS/129/2018. He asked for N1 billion as damages for infringing on his fundamental human rights.
Afegbua argued through his lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, that he was not been formally invited by the police before he was declared wanted and painting him as a fugitive and common criminal with no modicum of dignity.
He described his being declared wanted as a “witch-hunt, harassment, intimidation and persecution,” as his boss had not denied the statement he issued on his behalf. According to him, the police, the IGP, and the Force PRO used the media houses to declare him wanted.
He maintained that declaring him wanted was baseless, as he had never been formally invited by the police or resisted an arrest by the police before the declaration was made.
Police, Afegbua Resolve Difference
However, when Afegbua reported at the Police Headquarters last Wednesday in Abuja, the story changed. Emerging from the meeting with the Police, Afegbua, who went there with Ajulo, his counsel, declared that the police had apologised for declaring him wanted.
Afegbua said: “The Police said there was a mix-up somewhere to have warranted me being declared wanted, and they apologised.
“They said that the police is for the people; in a democracy it is their responsibility to be there for the people, not to intimidate, not to harass me.
“That they didn’t intend to harass me, they didn’t intend to intimidate me. Of course, you know we have a case in court, my lawyers will advise what steps we are going to take.”
Afegbua disclosed that Babangida, his principal, gave him the needed support all through the period that the controversy lasted.
He said: “It will even interest you to know that when I was declared wanted on Channels TV and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), my boss IBB was the one who called me and said ‘why are they declaring you wanted? Are you a criminal?’ And we laughed over it.”
“He also asked if I was on the run and if I have been given invitation and he said, okay that is interesting. My boss said he heard on the news that they talked about defamation of character and he asked whose character have you defamed?
“So, I am very much in touch with him and I am not doing anything out of the blues. He is a man I have been with for the past 14 years as spokesman. Even when I went to serve in my state, I was still very much in touch with him. I have said it before that I am part and parcel of him, we are family and so I don’t have any cause to worry over anything.
“I am only here personally because I was declared wanted. I am not on the run; I am not a fugitive to the law, and as a responsible Nigerian I feel it was unwise on the part of the police to declare me wanted when I have not been formally invited. So I am here to present myself. I am here with my wife, other family members and my lawyer.”
However, since the incident happened, the question in the minds of several Nigerians is: Is the Nigerian Police right in declaring Afegbua wanted for issuing a statement on behalf of his principal? Some also wonder that if the Police could have happened to Babangida’s spokesperson, what could have happened if he was an ordinary Nigerian who has no close knit with a former President.
Police Have No Right To Declare Afegbua Wanted – Businessman
Wilson Okaru, a Minna-based businessman, maintained that in an ideal situation where freedom of speech is observed, the Nigerian Police has no right to declare Afegbua wanted for allegedly issuing a statement on behalf of his principal.
He said: “I have known Kassim Afegbua with Babangida for as long as I can remember. I am not holding forth for Afegbua or Babangida, but I will not be in a hurry to believe that Afegbua acted outside his principal’s desires.
“Babangida has worked with Afegbua serving as his Chief Press Secretary during his days as Military Head of State. So, it will be difficult for anyone to convince me that what Afegbua released to media houses was not the one approved by Babangida.
“Again, journalists being what they are, have the right and ability to interpret the content of the press statement their own way or to suit individual media houses’ style, which to me is what could have brought about the initial denials by Babangida or his son, Mohammed. I think there is a mix-up somewhere because I don’t believe that Babangida is afraid of anybody at his age, not even President Muhammadu Buhari himself, take it or leave it, because he has seen it all being a one-time Military Head of State.
“Again, what has happened or what is happening between President Buhari’s government and IBB should be an eye opener and calls for caution on the part of our elder statesmen who after giving the go-ahead for someone to manage their media affairs by giving them the rights to speak on their behalf, only to come up with denials, thereby creating unfavourable situation as what we are witnessing today.
“Some of our elders like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo will speak for himself. Like him or hate him, he speaks for himself unlike the likes of IBB who I may say prefers to live within an enclave. That is why we have what we are witnessing now.
“Babangida, as at the last time I read about the saga, has owned up that he approved what Afegbua sent to media houses, coming out to claim that the document was not as he wanted it released, is immaterial and I think at this time, Babangida should be given the opportunity to tell Nigerians what he meant by that.
“There was no need for the Police declaring Afegbua wanted like a common criminal simply because he is exercising his rights to freedom of speech. Even if his principal (IBB) denies him, he still has the right to own up that the words were his. Or, is he not old enough to comment on any national issue?”
‘Police Acted In Haste – NCP Chief
Nzeh Cyprian Emejuru Igwe, a public affairs commentator and chieftain of the National Conscience Party (NCP), said: “The reactions emanating from Nigerians in respect of the letter reportedly written by the former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, to President Buhari and the position taken by police authorities, are quite interesting.
“It is another intrigue enveloping our still fledgling democracy. General Babangida is saying that he never authorised his spokesman to forward the controversial letter and that his media man, Kassim Afegbua, , leading to the declaration of the latter wanted by the Inspector General of Police.
“Curiously, Afegbua who is now in the eyes of the storm, is insistent that he actually secured the blessing of his boss before doing what he did. He went further to state that the alleged denial of the contentious statement by his boss was the handwork of some close associates of the Minna-born retired military president, who thought they are more Catholic than the Pope.
“Now, the poser is: “Did the gap-toothed retired Army General actually approve the letter before it was sent out? The police should therefore get in touch directly with General Babangida and not by proxy to ascertain if the letter is indeed his or not.
“A letter to a sitting president is sensitive and volatile more so when it borders on fundamental national issues. If General Babangida can come out boldly and make a categorical statement on this, then from there, we can take it.
“For now, the police has a lot of work to do and it was therefore premature to have declared Afegbua wanted based on the statement he was said to have made on behalf of his boss. The former military president is a man of principle who is not afraid of taking a decision.
“Remember that while in office, he was once quoted as saying that ‘history will forgive you if you take a wrong decision as a leader, but that history will not forgive you if you do not take any decision at all.”
‘Some leaders’ aides are sometimes overzealous’
Chief Benson Kamalu Egbejimba, a Second Republic politician and businessman, on his own maintained: “If Afegbua can prove it beyond all reasonable doubts that his boss, General Babangida directed him to release the statement, then, the police should not have declared him wanted, otherwise he should be held responsible for the heat the letter has generated in the polity.
“You know, some of the aides of our leaders are sometimes overzealous and too anxious in the discharge of their duties, just because they want to be seen and admired as good boys by their masters.
“To me, the police are right to declare him wanted. Let him explain more of the origin of the letter because of the heat it has generated. This will serve as a deterrent to others.”
IGP’s Action Is Condemnable – Journalist
Abdulrafiu Ayobami, a journalist and public affairs commentator, has condemned the action of the Inspector General of Police declaring Kassim Afegbua, the spokesperson to the former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, wanted over a statement issued on behalf of his principal.
Ayobami, who explained that the action of the police authority has political undertone and borne out of eye-service syndrome, noted that what Afegbua was accused of for declaring him wanted, was not criminal, but political.
He said that for the police authority to take such a step on political issue was not good enough for the nation’s democracy. He declared that Afegbua has not committed any crime by issuing a statement on behalf of his principal, adding that he was acting on a certain directive and if such statement did in any way affect the person of Mr. President, Afegbua is not the one to suffer for such ill statement, but his principal.
Ayobami stressed: “The action of the police is inappropriate, more so as he has not been invited or refused to honour such police invitation. The police should have first of all invited Afegbua for interrogation if need be, rather than declaring him wanted as if he committed any criminal offence.”
Ayobami therefore called on police authorities to tender unreserved public apology to Afegbua for its action and cautioned the IGP against getting into political war between two past military officers, Buhari and Babangida. He maintained that under the law, every Nigerian has his or her fundamental rights that must be respected by any constituted authority or institution.
‘Why Didn’t IGP Go After Babangida?’
Mr. Jonathan Enegide, a Benin based legal practitioner said: “As far as I am concerned, there is no constitutionality in what happened. All that we saw is publications in the newspapers that IBB’s spokesman has been declared wanted by the police and you do not declare somebody wanted on the pages of newspapers.
“I am yet to find any publication with the police logo with the name of Kassim Afegbua as a wanted person. Now, taking that as a foundation, I want to also feel that the law of agency is by extension the question of disclosed principal. If a man is acting on behalf of another, a named person, as soon as the principal is disclosed, all liabilities go to the principal. So, in this case Babangida is the disclosed principal to Kassim Afegbua.
“The issue is: What law has Kassim Afegbua infringed? Is it Babangida that is taking on him to say okay you have misrepresented me, or you went and stated what I did not send you?
“That should be the crux of the matter and before you declare the messenger wanted, what about the owner of the message? Have you also declared him wanted because in all of these I have never heard anything about police trying to confirm or otherwise from the former military leader and from the grapevine, we heard too that the man has come up to say look, I claim responsibility, indirectly, because silence is consent.
“If your subordinate is being harassed by the police, you have not come out to say police deal with him, he did not do what I sent him and you are indirectly funding his release from the police. Well, it is all about politicising the whole thing and from the information I gathered, Kassim Afegbua has visited the IGP and was given presidential treatment and is out of the place.
“So, a man that is declared wanted cannot sit in the comfort of the IGP’s office and thereafter, walks home happy thereafter.
“Afegbua is a seasoned gentleman, he is not one that is just doing that job for the fun of it. He knows the implications of all his actions and whatever action he has taken, he is able to defend. That is a plus on his own part and I commend him for it.”
Babangida, Obaanjo’s Letters To Buhari Was Timely – Okowa’s Aide
Barrister Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, Executive Assistant to Governor of Delta State on Communications, who spoke on former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Babaginda’s letters to Buhari, said: “The two former leaders of our country, have shown through their timely actions, that they are indeed worthy Nigerians who care for the survival of our people and this country, at a time the APC national government under President Buhari failed woefully to deliver on electioneering promise made to Nigerians in 2015 as encapsulated in the CHANGE mantra.
“The assertions of both leaders in their letters goes to show that the government of the day performed abysmally poor to an extent that insecurity has enveloped our country, particularly the unlawful killings perpetuated by Fulani herdsmen in some states.
“It can no longer be condoned. Apart from insecurity, there is frustration, depression, high rate of unemployment, the value of the Naira has become a national embarrassment, exchanging at official rate of N365 to $1 as against N164 to $1 on May 29, 2015.
“The Buhari administration, through Federal Ministry of Power jacked up electricity tariff by 250 per cent in midst of acute economic recession and poverty; increased the cost of pump price of petrol from N96 to N145 per litre and in some states a litre of the commodity is sold at a cost between N180 and N220.
“In the history of our nascent democracy, President Buhari is the only leader who spent more time on medical vacation abroad than any past president, far and above that of late President Musa Yar’Adua of blessed memory.
“Buhari has been regrettably unproductive, clueless, bereaved of socioeconomic ideas and therefore cannot present himself for re-election. In the light of the above, it is safe to assert that the intentions of former President Obasanjo and Babaginda are genuine and I strongly advise Buhari to honourably bow out and allow a competent hand to take over the affairs of our nation come 2019.”
The post A Focus On Police Invitation To Afegbua appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
A Focus On Police Invitation To Afegbua
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