OGBONNA ONOVO, SHOULD BE MORE CIRCUMSPECTIVE!

It is a generally agreed and accepted proposition that 'pictures don't lie', and so it turned out that Nigeria's Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, put his foot in his mouth when he swore, over the grave of his grandmother, that former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu never stepped his feet on Nigeria soil?

IGP Onovo then challenged those fire-eating e-media, engaged in "expartrate information news service to motherland" to produce any photographic evidence that Nuhu Ribadu ever visited Nigeria as claimed. Pictures of the heroic visit were splashed everywhere on the web and some courageous Nigeria print media outfits! Yet unconvinced, IGP Onovo disclaimed them as computer manipulated images and a gimmickry? Icheoku says, really? The IGP was additionally provided with videographic evidence of the visit, which were uploaded on YOUTUBE. But like the pharoahs of Egypt, IGP Onovo hardened his heart and dismissed the video once again as science "the more you look the less you see American wonder?" Icheoku will like to ask IGP Ogbonna Onovo, how could any sane functioning mind explain away what was captured on motion picture, a video uploaded on YOUTUBE, showing a fully animated and not still, Nuhu Ribadu, signing the condolence register at Gani Fawehinmi's residence, moving around, talking, gesticulating and commiserating with the family on the loss of their dear one? Maybe a Hollywood, nay, a Nollywood film-trick?

One of the problems mitigating against Nigeria's quest to "greatness" is that majority of her leadership persons are prisoners of their own over-bloated egos? The real mark of a warrior is to know when to ask for some help to carry on and finish an assigned task; but not with Nigerian's? Icheoku says, there is nothing unusually out of place or to indict the IGP for, if Nuhu Ribadu or any other person slipped through whatever security condone in Nigeria, as that could happen anywhere. Nigeria is not and will not be the only country where people have ever illegally entered and exited without the knowledge of the security operatives; afterall the Lord said in Psalm 127:1 that the sentinel watches in vain except the Lord watches alongside, with him? Even the almighty United States of America has problems policing her borders, otherwise the infestations of illegal aliens would have since been a thing of the past? But for a chief security officer of Nigeria, IGP Ogbonna Onovo to dismissively lie about the breach of Nigeria's notoriously porous borders by AIG Nuhu Ribadu, rubs Icheoku wrongly and for this we hold him accountable! We want to put his feet to the fire so that in the future he may have to check his facts first before going public with his comments?

Even as recent as yesterday, the "deposed" President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras managed to breach the security blanket specifically targeted at him and sneaked back to Tegucigalpa; and is now taking refuge at the Brazilian embassy there. So IGP Onovo, you are not the first nor will you be the last to ever drop the ball on a country's security, leading to some "unwanted" persons to safely go in and out of the "wanting" country? Recall that the late Gani Fawehinmi and Wole Soyinka had severally escaped from Nigeria during the gestapo regimes of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and the Kano midget Sani Abacha, when they wanted to ensnare them as their quarries? Even a good friend known to Icheoku.com, severally came in and out of Nigeria during his days as NADECO executive officer, and when being associted to that name meant a death-warrant in the hands of Abacha goonbas; and on certain occasions with the active connivance of some sympathetic security agents who wanted Abacha dead! So why was Nuhu Ribadu's "in and out" visit a surprise to you? Would it surprise you, Mr. IGP Onovo, if you learn that Nuhu Ribadu came into Nigeria and left with the active help of some of your officers, many of who strongly believe that the man, Nuhu is being unfairly targeted and haunted for daring to prosecute corruption in very high places? The witch-hunting of this man is giving Nigeria a black-eye in the international arena as a country which is so at peace with corruption that they would rather hunt the hunter of corruption!

Now back to Nuhu Ribadu's recent visit to honor Gani Fawehinmi and the now proven unfortunate denial of the IGP hat "it was merely an imagination of some sections of the press?" Icheoku asks, with the quantum of available evidence which was adduced both in in various formats including written, motion, visual and testimonials; and which have irrefutably proved the case beyond doubt, that AIG Nuhu Ribadu visited Nigeria, where does it leave Nigerians and their IGP? An IGP, whose statements will hence-forth not be as weighty as it would ordinarily have been if not for the unfortunate statement which has now turned out to be untrue?

Does this IGP by this serious error of judgment and misstep lost his credibility to function as the Inspector General of the Nigerian Police? Did the IGP, as one commentator said, bring an untoward embarrassment to the federal republic of Nigeria, the police force and the sickly man at Aso Rock, President Umaru Yar'Adua who appointed him? What happens when a man in such a position of authority looses his veracity; when his words is no longer worth the air through which they were disseminated? One question that readily comes to mind is whether this particular IGP spoke too fast on this very subject matter; an issue he would have given methodical thought before opening his air-valve? Was his wind-pipe so unguarded that it uttered a regrettable untruth? Did IGP Ogbonna Onovo speak too quickly on the presence or lack thereof, of Nuhu Ribadu foot on Nigeria soil? Icheoku's verdict, IGP Ogbonna Onovo spoke too fast and before he could check his version of facts with the actual facts as existed on the grounds at Gani Fawehinmi's residence? The panacea, this very IGP needs to be coralled in line, and in order to safeguard and protect his tenure as the IGP of Nigeria; knowing the very treacherous terrain that is Nigerian polity, and the rife competition to bring down other people from other tribes in order for another tribe's favorite to succeeded the once-was?

IGP Ogbonna Onovo, Icheoku advises you to 'please get a spokesman!' Also remember to always complete your investigation thoroughly, before opening your IGP-mouth again in the future in such a way as you did with this last Nuhu Ribadu's mercurial visit to Nigeria? Better still take some lessons or get some coaching in the art of political-speaking; now you have become by necessary implication, one of Nigerian top leaders by virtue of your office and your words henceforth means much to the various tribes that make up Nigeria. Instead of such gaffes and guffaws, please get used to giving generalised no-answer, answers; without committing yourself to anything specifically or corner yourself in a position which might turn out to be contradictory in the future. Whatever you do, avoid being pigeon-holed into a lying caricature of an IGP Fallacy or Fatansy! If confronted by an ambiguous convoluted question and you do not know the politically-correct answer or way to give a proper no-answer answer, tell the journalist, that investigation is still going on in the case and to comment will be to prejudge the outcome; or just refer them to the appropriate trained mouthpiece of the police - the Police PRO, period!

Icheoku will particularly not forgive you, in the event you cause the Igbos of the south east, this their God-given only opportunity to once in recent years, participate in the security meetings of the Nigerian federal government, through your office as the new IGP. You must tread softly and cautiously; hence-forth, guard your new office as a sacred trust for Nigerians and the Igbos of Nigeria in particular, being their only representative in chief, in Nigeria's security council. We do not want you to be swept away by tidal waves of Nigeria's tsunami politics of intrigue, where tribal loyalties still holds sway; and where party A does not know necessarily what party B is really thinking and vice versa? What if such gang-up was the reason you were left in the lurch with Nuhu Ribadu's visit to Nigeria? Also remember that there is a thing called sabotage; and you shouldn't be surprised if some of your junior officers, who see you as detestible, decided to just paint you as incompetent or just in a bad light and frustrate your effort to effectively police Nigeria and deliver on the job.

Based on the above premise, Icheoku asks IGP Ogbonna Onovo, how was he sure that Nuhu Ribadu did not come into Nigeria with full cooperation and connivance of some of his former colleagues at EFCC, who are still in the police force but bearing grudges on the way they and their former boss were treated after their service to their fatherland? Or possibly some force-members who are not happy with Ogbonna Onovo's appointment as their IGP? We are talking of conspiracy theories, IGP Onovo; after-all Nuhu Ribadu was a former AIG and former chairman of the once dreaded EFCC, so could some people be owing him some favor which he had called on them to now re-pay? That a former police officer of the rank of an AIG would not know how to sneak in and out of Nigeria should be the thing to baffle anyone including the IGP; but not otherwise; when ordinary untrained men and women including smugglers, steadily go in and out of Nigeria without detection! The IGP should therefore do the wise thing, smarten up and apologise to Nigerians for his impetuous "reckless" statement, which has now been debunked and proved to be untruthful! He should own up to the mix-up of his fiction and the existing non-fiction, and promise to do better in the future or the next time Nuhu Ribdau comes around and tries to enter and exit Nigeria. Or as is always the case with Nigerian leadership, just blame it on the guy next door, who gave you a faulty intelligence/assessment of the situation; or better still, on some wild-eyed detractors of the government who does not wish Nigeria well?

FYI:- It will be recalled that it is the same IG Onovo who in one of his first baby-steps as a new IGP, rescinded himself shortly after his order "removing police orderlies of certain persons in Nigeria" and only to make an instant u-turn to allow the same under his newly found subterfuge of unity of husband and wife? According to his theory of recission, a husband and wife are the same person and so is a governor and the governor's wife entitled to equal security protection of and by the Nigeria Police Force? Fair enough and we must concede him that unity of persons exists in marriage. So much for the foibles of the new Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo!