On Saturday, 9th of April, 2011, I would have been a victim of the military extrajudicial murder!
I was labelled a gun runner and shot over a hundred times, but by the mercies of God, I survived. I did not die. Bullet scars are still on my head and neck.
The commander of the team, an Army Major, I think Major Mike, my brother Sanchez Sylvester knows him better; on checking my car and investigating me, discovered that I was an Election Anti Rigging Group leader who had no guns nor bombs, only cameras and other recording devices. I was just a young but passionate activist who wanted a better society through credible elections, regardless of who won.
I slept in the police cell in Ughelli over that weekend. My big Uncle Col. Tony Nyiam Rtd. and Brother Efe Duku came to see me at the police station. Even Papa Morrison Olori came to see me.
I was charged to court the following Monday and released by the court. Again, what was my offence? Someone had alleged I was a gun runner, and the Soldiers, without any further proof, opened fire on me and my team all because, as an Activist, all I wanted was a free, fair and credible election.
I BELIEVE WITNESSES OF THIS INCIDENT ARE STILL ALIVE.
Imagine for a second, if I had died from the over 100 gunshots, I would have been labelled a thug who died perpetuating election malpractice. To this very day, that narrative will keep running, and my family would have remained hit by this propaganda and daint BECAUSE DEAD MEN DON’T TALK NOR DEFEND THEMSELVES.
Yes, after my murder, in defence of their error, as they will never own up to the mistake, the military would have said, ‘An electoral robber Rex Anighoro was killed while trying to snatch ballot boxes or while engaging the military officers in a shootout’, the press would have amplified it as so and even you probably would have cursed my memory just because NO BODY WILL BE WILLING TO CHALLENGE THE MILITARY, THEIR SINGLE A DOMINANT NARRATIVE WOULD HAVE FLOWED AND THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN DECLARED PATRIOTIC AND I REX ANIGHORO, A THUG, ELECTORAL THIEF AND A VILLIAN.
God forbid! Imagine for some minutes, if I had died from the gunshots and my followers, family or community in an emotional rush had avenged my death probably extra judicially also, I think that most likely my followers would have been exterminated, my family would have been wiped out, and my community razed down!
Sadly, many probably would have celebrated these actions and defended the killings and argued that MY LIFE AS A CIVILIAN IS OF LESS VALUE TO THAT OF A MILITARY MAN AND THAT I DESERVE TO DIE, tried in the court of public opinion, often distorted and emotional.
I am eternally against extrajudicial killings of any kind, be it a civilian or military killing, and the collaboration of the civil populace greatly saddens me in endorsing such. We have supported and embraced age-long abuse as the new normal, and by this energise extra judicial killings on claims, we never may investigate.
THE CIVILIAN LIFE IS NOT OF LESS VALUE! NEVER!! NEITHER IS THE LIFE OF A MILITARY OFFICER OF LESSER VALUE NOR GREATER VALUE THAN THAT OF THE CIVILIAN!
ALL DEATHS MUST BE CONDEMNED EQUALLY. ALL LIVES MATTER!
Gatekeepers News is not liable for opinions expressed in this article, they’re strictly the writer’s
