All over the country now and particularly in Imo State, there have been disturbing issues about insecurity. In recent times, there have been quite scores of insecurity challenges in the Eastern Heartland enclave that called for deep concern. As these matter rage on, a renowned commentator and known Professor of Philosophy, Prof. Protus Nathan Uzoma was reportedly whisked away by security men a couple of weeks ago.
Uzoma who hails from Isu Local Government Area of Imo State has for a long time been a strong voice against bad governance in Imo State and Nigeria at large.
He is a respected known social critique and public affairs analyst who has always constructively criticized governments’ unfriendly and anti masses policies and actions across different administrations in Imo State and the country at large. During the past administration of Senator Rochas Okorocha as governor, Uzoma remained among the strongest voices that criticized the perceived anti people policies and ‘familiocracy’ ran by Okorocha with members of his family and close relatives.
For over three weeks, the whereabouts of this erudite professor has remained unknown as his family, friends, associates, fans and admirers have tried unsuccessfully to locate him. Some newspapers in Imo State, like your darling News Echo Newspaper have made it a point of duty to raise a campaign in their front page to ask for the whereabouts of Uzoma, but no official information has been received on that. Meanwhile, unofficial information from some of the distributors and vendors who were arrested during the recent clampdown by the IGP’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) said they met him at the Tiger Squad Cell at Shell Camp Police Station, near the state police command headquarters, Owerri.
They painted a very pitiable picture of this Professor of Philosophy who has been reduced to the condition of a common criminal, probably by someone or group who wants to show him that it/he has the power to mess him up, irrespective of his level of education. According to the information, Uzoma is seriously ill and requires urgent medical attention.
What is happening to him has remained a mystery to many. The questions on the lips of Imolites and Nigerians who have spoken about the development are; “how on earth will a man of that status be picked up, in a democratic dispensation and also in this present 21st century and kept for weeks without any communication with his family, friends and associates”? “What is Nigeria turning to”? “Why are we retrogressing to the dark ages which the world has left centuries ago”? “What has happened to the sanctity of human life”? “Has our society suddenly thrown away the respect for human right”? “Why is there serious effort and attempt to suppress freedom of speech and expression in Nigeria and Imo State in particular”?
A social commentator Mr. Damian Nwachukwu linked what is currently happening in Imo State to the situation during the military era when there was a serious attempt to clampdown on and suppresses freedom of expression. He recalled that during that during that era, social activists/commentators like Dele Giwa, Gani Fawehiyemi, Christy Anyanwu, among others, suffered such arrests and clampdown on several occasions leading to Giwa’s untimely death. He said such situation was somehow understandable for a military regime, but wondered why Imo people may be subjected to such treatment during a democratic dispensation.
According to some concerned citizens, it is unthinkable that this kind of thing is happening and our government and security agents see it as the best way to handle security challenges. They reason that it can never be the best approach; rather it is another way of stoking up the fire of insecurity and mass resistance. According to Chimezie Ashamole, “The so called insecurity we are witnessing now is as a result of this kind of thing.
A situation where those in authority use their power to suppress any dissenting voice about their actions and style of leadership is condemnable. It is a well known fact that when someone is pushed to the wall, he will have no choice than to bounce back, if our government and security agencies continue with this use of force to suppress the masses, they may end up pushing larger percentage of Nigerians to the wall, making them to bounce back and try to resist.
“Under that circumstance, government and security agents will kill and get tired of killing, because more people may make up their minds to rather die than to witness this level of suppression and dehumanization”, a respondent said.
When contacted for his comment over the development, Dr. Sam Amadi said for any arrest of anybody, the person should be charged to court within 48 hours and if any security agency must detain any person beyond that period, such agency must obtain permission from a magistrate or any court of competent jurisdiction. He said under such situation, the person is said to be under a judicial supervised detention, whereby his family members and associates are put on the know, including his lawyers who may wish to make representation on their client’s behalf. Amadi said such permission from court is usually given for a period of seven days, after which the security agency can still approach the court for extension if they are not through with whatever reason they gave for such demand.
He said such arrest must be brought to public notice for the family and well wishers to be rest assured that their loved one is not dead or lost, but being held by security agents. According him, the present case, if found that Prof. Uzoma is being held by security agents, is a total violation of his fundamental human rights.
“What is happening now is totally the violation of fundamental right provided for in the constitution and also a violation of administrative rules of governace. A situation where citizens are taken away without any trace of where they are or who is holding them, especially in this era of kidnapping, banditry, killing of people, how do people know that their loved ones are being held by the police or any other security agency. How do they know that the person has not been killed.
“So I frown at this development, just as other well meaning Nigerians will frown at it. Such situation depicts a rule of terror, showing that Imo is now under clawn of lawlessness and the question is, what is the governor doing to ensure that the fight against unknown gunmen and other forms of criminality is conducted within the purview of the law and not to threaten the lives of Imo people who he claim to have been elected to protect?
Also a renowned opinion analyst, Dr. Chuks Osuji, was contacted for comments. He described himself as a close ally of Uzoma and expressed grief over his disappearance. He said he has been calling people who are close to the professor on daily basis to ask about his whereabouts, but have not got any tangible answer. He however chose not to make further comments over the development, saying the family should be in a better position to make pronouncements on the development. According to him, since nobody can make any definite comment concerning his whereabouts, whatever said will be speculative which he said he was not ready to delve into.
