By Pius Adesanmi.
On Saturday, Chief Raymond Dopkesi, Chairman of DAAR Communications, escaped an assassination attempt. I am happy for the man and his family.
However, his police detail, Sergeant Den Gaius of the FCT Police Command, was not as lucky as the rich, powerful, and privileged private citizen of Nigeria he was assigned to protect.
Sergeant Den Gaius was felled by the assassins' bullets.
I hold the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, responsible for the death of this police officer.
Sergeant Gaius's death is predictably not on the national radar. In the ways of Nigeria, he was an expendable common man.
In the irresponsible habit of the Nigerian state and her officials, we have not even heard an official word about this police officer.
This is one death that the Federal Government and the Inspector General of Police cannot be allowed to greet with perfunctory silence.
The people of Nigeria are entitled to answers.
What, in God's name, was Raymond Dokpesi, a private citizen, doing with a police detail?
Chief Raymond Dokpesi was recently indicted for corruption by this same Nigerian state. He is in fact out on bail.
What kind of society provides a police orderly for a corruption indictee on the degoatification roaster?
These layers of corruption and irrationality have now led to the death of the police officer.
On occasions like this, I feel like shredding my Nigerian passport. How can I continue to lay claim to membership of the human race when my society insists on conduct that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have found reprehensible?
How can corruption indictees go about in convoys boasting police details?
Who else is undergoing degoatification and still enjoys the privilege of police orderlies supplied by Solomon Arase and the Nigerian state? Olisa Metuh? Dasuki? FFK? How many police officers are on illegal duty in private residences in Maitama, Lekki, Banana Island? How many police officers are on illegal duty in Bourdillon street in Ikoyi?
I understand that some private citizens even enjoy the privilege of having police posted to their country homes even when such homes are empty. This is not a country. She is a zoo.
Solomon Arase must answer for the death of this police officer.
And pox on the Nigerian media! Many of our editors deserve to be lined up at the bar beach and shot for what they are doing to that society. The abdication of responsibility, the complete loss of any understanding of the role and duties of the fourth estate of the realm to society has reached the level of treason. Of all the media reports of this incident, not one raises an eyebrow on the oddity of Dopkesi having a police detail.
They just reported it as a matter of course: Dokpesi escapes assassination, his police detail killed. No questions for Arase. No questions for the Federal government.
We must reject this Nigeria. I cannot see myself as part of a society where corruption indictees and criminals openly enjoy privileges and perks of state. It hurts. It cuts straight to the bone.
We have to make an acceptable Nigeria.
We can start by coming together to hold Solomon Arase accountable. Sergeant Den Gaius must not die in vain.
Opinion: The Police IG has questions to answer. How on earth will someone on bail, who is facing criminal charges have police orderly? This is one death too many.
C.V.Akuta Media UK.
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