By Ochereome Nnana

Before we know it, the gruesome murder of Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, a former Political Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, will be quickly consigned to the overcrowded dustbin of Nigeria’s history. In Nigeria, life has no meaning, sanctity, or value. As far as the system and its blind supporters are concerned, the murder has already been solved. Not being a “follower” of the system, this heinous crime has, to me, not been solved. That is why I ask today:  Really, who killed Ahmed Gulak?

Gulak was assassinated at the precincts of the Dr. Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri on Sunday, May 30, 2021 on the eve of the annual sit-at-home ritual in the South East and parts of the South-South to honour the memories of the millions of Igbo people who lost their lives during the pogroms and the subsequent 30-month Civil War. The estimated number of people killed during the war was once popularly put at one million. But the “death toll” appears to still be rising. President Muhammadu Buhari likes to put it at “two million”, while the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, regularly quotes “five million”.

As soon as Gulak’s murder took place, the official, knee-jerk verdict was that it was the handiwork of IPOB, an allegation that the movement vehemently denied and still denies. Acting true to this opinion, the Imo State Police Command triumphantly announced the same day that it had killed the alleged perpetrators. According to a statement by Bala Elkana, the Imo State Police Spokesman, the driver of the taxi that Gulak rode (without security escort) to the airport had vividly described the vehicles allegedly used by the so-called “IPOB” operatives. According to Elkana, the police team met the assassins sharing a bag of onions they confiscated, obviously from a Northern trader at Mbaise.

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“On sighting the police, the hoodlums providing security coverage to those sharing the onions opened fire on the police teams, but the gallant and battle-ready police officers returned fire. Six hoodlums who carried out the killing and four other members of their gang were fatally injured…” 

This is an everyday Nigeria police story. It is recycled, especially when the Police carry out extrajudicial killing of suspects, in the apparent belief that the Nigerian public are dunderheaded. Do assassins move in a manner as to make themselves easily detectable by the law enforcement agents? Would assassins normally abandon their mission of escaping justice to pounce on truckload of onions (ONIONS, for goodness’ sake!) so that the police can conveniently come and “fatally” wound them with no police casualty?   

This police story, like all Nigeria Police stories, is fit only for the proverbial “marines”. It smells like hell, and I am not buying it. Ahmed Gulak’s killers may still be somewhere patting themselves on the back for the closure which this unintelligent police statement provides for them. Some innocent young men and women may have been sent to their early graves with impunity. I will only be mollified if this police statement was created to divert attention from a thorough investigation which the police still intend to carry out.

I am definitely not ruling out possible IPOB (or its armed group defending the forests and farmlands against invader herdsmen militias) involvement. Though I have my doubts about IPOB involvement, everything should be on the table. Everyone is a suspect until cleared after a thorough, unbiased investigation.

There are three suspects on the table. We have already mentioned IPOB. But is it the same Nigeria Police which fingered the movement for the Owerri jailbreaks without evidence or investigation that can be trusted to investigate IPOB without bias? The Imo State Government, a sworn IPOB enemy, blamed it on “aggrieved politicians”. Ralph Uwazuruike, another IPOB foe, also cleared IPOB. Governor Hope Uzodimma, who is pitched in a frontal battle against IPOB, has also announced that 70 per cent of the Imo attackers arrested so far “are not Igbo”. They are people of Northern and Sahelian origins. Who, really, are behind the Imo violence? Who killed Ahmed Gulak? All murders have motives. What is IPOB’s motive in killing Gulak?

Gulak’s murder must be thoroughly investigated. He was a Nigerian citizen and deserves justice. It does not matter what one thinks of his person or politics. Those are no reasons to gun after his life. We, ordinary Nigerians, must be on our guard against our enemies masquerading as our leaders. Gulak’s death was already (still is) being hyped in a manner to pitch the North against the Igbo. The herdsmen orgy of killings has already frayed nerves enough. Sanity must return!

Vanguard News Nigeria