A recent report that the Abuja residence of the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, was attacked by some criminals was described by the police as a case of burglary. There is hardly any doubt that the incident was not just burglary. Happily, the Ike Ekweremadu that I know, like his late friend Uche Chukwumerije, is an expert in unarmed combat, an art which he was able to display during the attack.
Ekweremadu had had other encounters with criminals before the Abuja attack, although he kept much of the previous attacks to himself. These are quite apart from verbal attacks.
Despite tight security in the senator’s Abuja residence, the “burglars” were able to gain entry right up to his bedroom. He was able to arrest one of the criminals during the encounter in his home. His efforts to reach the Inspector–General of Police and other security units did not go through, in spite of the urgency. Happily, one of the intruders whom he was able to arrest was handed over to the nearest police unit. Perhaps, it was from the arrested criminal that the police knew that the attack was a case of burglary. Let’s hope so!
Senator Ekweremadu deserves to be given a state salute and honour for his bravery, tact and courage in facing armed intruders into his home. Being able to arrest one of such audacious criminals and to hand him over to the police, alive, demands that he be given an award by the Inspector-General of Police. That the arrested ‘burglar’ was not lynched by residents of Ekweremadu neighbourhood is also a commendable gesture. May the police interrogate, investigate and prosecute the arrested burglar successfully without any excuses, that the public may hear the end of the burglary story.
There were such audacious burglars who broke into and entered the Abuja home of ex-president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, with intent to commit felony therein. The burglars who stole his wearing apparels, including his Ijaw Chieftaincy dresses, probably sold them as ‘Belgium materials” in the market. Were such burglars driven by hunger and poverty to take away the ex-president’s traditional dresses, hats and walking-stick, or was the motive to humiliate him? Goodluck Jonathan is a gentleman!
Ekweremadu was lucky that the burglars who broke into his home did not succeed in taking away his belongings, neither was there any bloodshed. That one of the burglars was caught in the process could mean that the intruders were either inexperienced operators, or that the senator tactfully out-witted them in their trade. Valour and might can be demonstrated better through wit than witchcraft.
Nigerian burglars and other criminals are known to be fetish and diabolical, such that they use various charms and amulets to make themselves invulnerable and invincible. Like Macbeth, there are Nigerians strongmen who “bear a charmed life which must not yield to one of woman born.”
There have also been stories that Nigerian great politicians are not ordinary human beings but people who get themselves “cooked and fortified” in Ijebu Ode or India. Otherwise, how do they survive the “do-or-die affair” of Nigerian Voodoo politics? One old Nigerian politician was quoted as having said that he was “above human destruction.” Some of the current ones are so daring that they can do what ordinary people would fear to do. What gives them such courage and audacity?
While Senator Ekweremadu is being saluted and congratulated for out-witting and arresting one of the ‘burglars’ that invaded his Abuja home, let other senators and politicians learn from him. First of all, let all politicians take some course in unarmed combat and self-defence which some experts in the nation’s security agencies and consultants can arrange for them. Second, let them know that hands that spill blood, directly or through hired assassins, are jinxed such that “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten” them.
Finally, let those audacious criminals who break and enter into other people’s dwelling houses with intent to commit felony therein, beware of the risks which they take. They can be lynched when caught. Besides, at the end of the day, evil empires and those who take part in their upbuilding, are usually destroyed through the instrumentality of evil. Let development process not be merely physical or material, but inward or spiritual!
Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University, PH.