
In the same manner Niger Delta activist Ken Niweigha was captured and summarily executed few months ago, the Nigerian authorities has once again dispatched their "public enemy No. 1" to the world beyond, without any recourse to the judicial process? Having arrested him, why not try him in a court of law to afford him that opportunity which his sect never gave to all those innocents, they maimed and killed? When will this lawlessness by the Nigerian authorities stop and the president's promised rule of law truly respected? Or was a captured rabble-rouser not included among those Nigerians entitled to the promised rule of law? Icheoku says, we do not think so; as the law is meant for those people who do not respect the law and Mohammed Yusuf pictured top left, was one heck of such an intended beneficiary of the rule of law, being a chief law-breaker extra-ordinaire, himself! Should we say, a terrorist deserving a cell at Guantanamo?
We do not in any way condone violence of any type, especially the type of baseless mayhem which was unleashed on innocent Nigerians by these lunatic fundamentalists, who do not want to do better for and by themselves; and want the rest of Nigerians sucked into their stupidity and ideological idiosyncrasy! If we have our way, every fundamentalist religion or sect will meet with such fate as Mohammed Yusuf and his dumb followers deserved; but we are no longer in medival times as the rule of law reigns and must be allowed to thrive and thrive for all, including this lunatic Mohammed Yusuf. The Nigerian security forces had finished their job with the capture of the renegade and would have transitioned him to the Justice department for prosecution and eventual execution, if convicted? But for these security forces to now take the laws into their hands and become the hangman, without any trial whatsoever, defiles all the pontifications on the rule of law being bandied around and orchestrated by President Umaru Yar'Adua.

This is the fork on the road and where Icheoku disagrees with the Nigerian authorities - the 'modus-operandi' employed to bring their brand of justice to Mohammed Yusuf. We hereby denounce unequivocally, the state murder of Mohammed Yusuf, irrespective of the heinous acts of terrorism allegedly perpetrated by him and/or under his command. An eye for an eye makes the world go blind; so why would the Nigerian authorities now co-tow the same pathway created by Mohammed Yusuf and his band of thugs, by totally disregarding the red letters of the law as it appertains to an accused?
The problem with this type of extra-judicial state murder is that the whole world is watching and bearing testimonies as to the lawlessness of the Nigerian authorities? Nigeria is not an island and must operate as part of a decent world humanity whose membership, the comity of nations, is obliged to conform to certain ethical decorum with respect to human lives. More-so, the bare-faced lie of his "trying to escape" is as laughable as it is ridiculous; as no person shackled down in a body manacle, handcuffs and leg-chains could possibly "try to escape", under that condition of restraint, except that person is a Houdini but fortunately, Houdini has since been long dead! Why didn't the police give a chase? Where were those police dogs? Why was the escapee's legs not targeted? How can somebody who was found hiding inside a goat's pen in his in-laws' hut, "try to escape", hamstrung and surrounded by fierce looking, battle tested Nigerian army and police? Oh no, tell that to the marines!




Good piece,you made mention of extra judicial killing of the sect leader by security agents.There is an unconfirmed report that the emirs in northern part of nigeria who have been bankrolling him ordered his execution because if he is subjected to judicial trial he will expose them because they are the ones using him as an instrument of mayhem.Security report indicated that he and his group has been in existence since 1995,he was charged to court recently, an Abuja high court granted him bail.It is the socio economic situation in that part of nigeria that provides the fertile grounds for breeding of fundamentalist like this group.They claim they do not like anything western,yet they drive SUVs, they use cellphones,they use western made electronic gadgets to propagate their doctrines of hate and ignorance.
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