The current travails of a legal practitioner, Chinedu Agu, in the hands of the Imo State Police Command once again highlight the troubling use of state power to silence dissenting voices, Davidson Iriekpen writes
What legal practitioner Chinedu Agu is currently facing at the hands of Imo State government officials, over an issue that should ordinarily spur the government to act in the people’s interest, exposes how intolerant some state governments have recently become.
Upon his return from the annual convention of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Enugu, Agu did an innocuous travelogue in which he compared Imo State and Enugu State.
In the travelogue, which was supposed to be a mere peer review, he commended Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State for massive infrastructural development, but thumbed down Governor Hope Uzodimma for not doing much, even when the state collects billions of naira monthly from federal allocation and oil derivation fund.
Rather than simply countering Agu’s claims point-by-point, with a superior argument, making public the report card of the Imo State government in the past five years, some state officials allegedly created a non-existent association to petition the police against Agu on some cheap allegations for which Agu was arrested, detained, and is now facing trial.
This is not the first time the state government has displayed intolerance to any criticism against it.
In November 2024, the wife of a former commissioner in the state had raised the alarm that her husband, Fabian Ihekweme, had been abducted by suspected gunmen in Abuja.
She claimed that Governor Uzodimma sent “unknown men” who abducted her husband.
But the police spokesperson in the state, Mr. Henry Okoye, claimed that Ihekweme was “lawfully arrested” by police detectives, and not abducted by gunmen. However, his arrest was said to be connected to his frequent criticisms of Governor Uzodimma’s administration.
He had since sued the Nigerian Police over his arrest and prolonged detention.
In the same state in 2023, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Joe Ajaero, was abducted, brutalised, and left for dead by agents of the state. His offence was leading workers to a peaceful protest against the non-payment of salaries and pensions after exhausting all other processes of dialogue.
Even during the military era, such brutality or bestiality was not visited on any Labour leader, let alone the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress.
To date, none has been brought to justice for Ajaero’s ordeal.
In Sokoto State, an aide to Senator Aminu Tambuwal, the immediate past governor of the state and serving senator, Mr. Shafi’u Umar Tureta, was remanded in a correctional facility for allegedly insulting Governor Ahmad Aliyu on Facebook.
Tambuwal’s aide allegedly shared a document that purportedly showed that Aliyu scored F9 in English Language in the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
Tureta was also said to have shared videos to mock the governor for not “being fluent in English” and was accused of posting a video in July showing the spraying of dollar notes during the birthday celebration of the governor’s wife, Fatima.
Amnesty International Nigeria condemned his arrest, saying it was “unacceptable.”
While that was still raging, a woman, Hamdiyya Sidi, was arrested and put in prison for allegedly lamenting the rising killings and general insecurity in the state.
In a viral video, Ms. Sidi revealed how bandits pillaged their villages without restraints, and how displaced women seeking refuge in the state capital are now being sexually exploited due to abject poverty and squalor.
In Kano State, a journalist, Muktar Dahiru, who was accused of making a Facebook post considered “insulting” to Governor Abba Yusuf, was arrested and remanded in prison.
Dahiru, who works with Pyramid FM Kano, a radio station managed by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), was arrested on August 29, 2024, based on the allegation of sharing multiple audio interviews in which opposition politicians criticised the Kano State governor.
A journalist based in Kebbi State, Mr Hassan Mai-Waya Kangiwa, was arrested last month and detained on the orders of Governor Nasir Idris for releasing a video showing the deplorable conditions at the Kangiwa General Hospital.
Following the backlash, the Kebbi State government paid N200,000 to him in compensation for his unlawful detention.
In July last year, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Abdul Majid Mustapha a.k.a Dan Bilki Commander, was brutalised in Abuja by suspected thugs for allegedly insulting Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State on social media.
In a video that went viral, he was seen in handcuffs being interrogated and assaulted by a group of men who accused him of insulting Governor Sani.
Though the state government dissociated itself from the incident and claimed that it had ordered a probe, the victim accused the state government of not tolerating dissenting views.
“Previously, they (the state government) humiliated a lady and a social media influencer who supports El-Rufai. The guy was brutalised at a market,” Commander was quoted as saying in a media report.
A Niger State-based journalist, Mustapha Bina, was detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) after reporting an alleged bandit attack on Governor Umaru Bago’s motorcade during a project tour to Mashegu Local Government Area.
Though the state government denied the incident, Bina was arrested and detained by the DSS, allegedly on the orders of Governor Bago.
Last year, the police in Borno State arrested and detained one Sultan Usman for five days for criticising the Executive Secretary of the Borno State Geographical Information Service, Adam Bababe, over flood prevention measures in the state.
After a flood disaster devastated homes and businesses in Maiduguri, the state capital, in September 2024, Bababe, whose agency is responsible for land administration, in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, blamed communities that resisted his agency’s steps to implement flood prevention measures for the disaster.
But Usman replied to him, saying the tweet was like an open admission that the government had failed in its responsibility.
Though Bababe acknowledged that the post was deleted immediately, he reported Usman to the police, leading to his prompt arrest and detention.
A majority of the state governors have issues such as insecurity, poverty, and hunger that should overwhelm them, but they chose to go after the opposition.
Like others, Agu’s arrest and detention by the Imo State Police constitute a serious assault on free speech and democracy, and are therefore unacceptable.
The actions of the state government represent an alarming abuse of power and a calculated attempt to intimidate and punish those who speak out for their society.
While many Nigerians are opposed to the creation of state police as they fear that they will be mere tools in the hands of the governors to harass, intimidate, and silence their critics, the actions of the governors have helped to further reinforce the fear.
Instead of suppressing dissident voices, the Imo State government should direct all its efforts and energy towards curbing the insecurity that has destroyed the state.
By persecuting dissent voices, some governors are on a mission to destroy the country’s democracy.
