POLITICAL THUGS

Political thugs don't buy guns for themselves. The guns are bought by politicians. These guns are used to assassinate political opponents, snatch ballot boxes, intimidate voters and electoral officers. It has been established since 1999 that after the elections, the criminal politicians don't retrieve the guns from their goons. And when the politician who bought the guns loses elections, oftentimes the thugs use the guns to cause mayhem and make the state or constituencies ungovernable for the winner. In some other cases even when the politician wins, he retains the services of the goons to continue his intimidation and dominance of the opposition.

These kind of activities led to the demise of prominent politicians such as Funso Williams, Marshall Harry, Aminosari Dikibo, Chief Bola Ige, just to mention a few, not to mention millions of ordinary Nigeria who have been felled by the bullets of these murderers. Some of us have forgotten that immediately after the elections in 2015, Samuel Ortom raised an alarm that his predecessor, Gabriel Suswan has vowed to make the state ungovernable for him. In response to this alarm, the security operatives invited Suswan for questioning. Benue state has been a theatre of violence since then, until recently when criminal elements from the state were apprehended with the Chief thug (General Gana) still on the run with a bounty on his head. The arrest of these goons and the resultant reduction in killings in Benue has led many to hold the view that much of the killings were not carried out by herdsmen as was reported by the media. Benue state may have just been a victim of political thuggery masqueraded as herdsmen killings. And this calls for introspection. Shed of all embellishments, political thuggery is a crime. Therefore anyone who procures arms to facilitate it is also a criminal. And if the thugs, on their own, chose to deploy the arms in committing other crimes, the politician who provided the guns is an accessory to the crime. We all know these things. It therefore behoves on us to work together to ensure that these nefarious indiscretions are stamped out in our society. Anyone who defends a politician that is accused of equipping thugs with instruments of death is a criminally minded person and an enemy to Nigeria. These politicians are rich enough to get themselves the best lawyers in the world. Let them have their day in court. Any element of criminality you support or condone today may come back to haunt you sooner than you expect.