The Abuja Joint Task Force, A Force Without Control.

Jeff Okoroafor

Probably very few people, especially from the influential cadre, may not have witnessed or experienced the brutality of the Joint Task Force set up by Senator Bala Mohammed, the recently out-gone Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. For those who have, you’d agree with me that they are beyond wicked and heartless, they are evil. They don’t belong in a civil society and they must go for peace and serenity to reign.

At this point, am not entirely sure which example to cite and which to leave out, they are numerous and pathetically graphical in presentation. Innocent Nigerians have lost their lives at their hands, pregnant women have miscarried as a result of manhandling from them, about to wed bride have lost her life at their hands…market sellers, car owners, road workers, independent and corporate journalists etc, the list goes on and there seem to be no stopping on this senseless brutality and unjust treatment.

Just yesterday, a civil rights and social activist, Dorothy Njemanze, was beaten to a pulp and survived only by the grace of God, for simply doing what was right and authorized by law. She was put in a very small, dirty cell together with about hundred persons. Those who went to visit her, to find out what happened and if there’s a possibility for bail, was also beaten up and some dragged by their hair and breast, into the same cell. In all of this, the Chairman of the Joint Task Force, CP Wilson Inalegun, who consented to the fact that there was nothing wrong in tapping or reporting a public incidence, said nothing can actually be done to the Task Force. The questions right now are:

-Have Senator Bala Mohammed created a monster that can no longer be controlled?
-Where then do we go from here?
-Should we just fold our hands and continue to endure this authorized assassination?
-How much longer must we wait for something to be done and who will act to save citizens lives?

One thing is clear to me this very moment, that this corporate madness have to stop. The mandate given to them is simple, sanitize the federal capital by keeping it clean and preventing access into the metropolis, by hawkers as well as other public nuisances. If they cannot do this job with some level of decency and civility, then they should be disbanded with immediate effect before it gets out of hands, before Nigerians begin to think of a retaliatory measures which will be unhealthy for everyone. I don’t see a sense in how a group can be formed by the government without a regulatory measure or guiding rules of engagement. Even touts behaves better than these people, at least, touts barely kill in their operations.
Don’t get me wrong or quote me out of context, clear the federal capital, keep it crystal clean, take out law breakers out of the way, but in doing this, exercise decency, put a touch of humanity to it.

This is a clarion call to the authority, to the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, President Muhammadu Buhari, to look into the activities of this joint task force, call them to order and if this recklessness continues, have them disbanded. Our lives, my life, the citizen’s lives matters too!

God bless Nigeria.