Another Apo slaughter cover-up?

taken over by those who wandered from far and wide in search of daily living in a hostile city. Helpless, hapless and perhaps without any relatives, they find their abode in an abandoned building and soon their ranks swell. From a few in numbers, they grow as only the poor do – cater for their […]

taken over by those who wandered from far and wide in search of daily living in a hostile city. Helpless, hapless and perhaps without any relatives, they find their abode in an abandoned building and soon their ranks swell. From a few in numbers, they grow as only the poor do – cater for their ilk. Their noise, the pollution from their open-air cooking, public defecation and of course substance abuse are known to their neighbours. Everywhere in any capital city that repels the poor, this is a known setting.
A robbery-prone and socially deprived neigh-bourhood would complain to the lawmen who would carry out raids, extort money from them and set them free. The cycle continues until or except the owner of the house can mobilize soldiers who are not subjected to the rules of civil engagement. Meanwhile neighbours in exasperation may call on the army. If they have the connections, the soldiers would assault and drive out the invaders, leaving a plaque meant to drive the fear of God into squatters – military zone, keep off!
In our instance, the owner is alleged to be a ranking military officer. The raid goes burst as the soldiers stormed the building, which has neither doors nor windows. A bloodbath ensues; somebody pulled the trigger and the ricochet echoes through the neighbourhood. Nine people are killed, and perhaps for fear that someone with a camera phone was recording the fiasco, the rest are shot in the arms and legs. Then begins the tragic cover-up, and the need to exonerate the cold-blooded murderers; hence the quest to call it a Boko Haram raid. But why?
Because the Boko boys are young, homeless northern Muslims aka almajirai- the final step in the completion of a Boko metamorphosis. Because there is an unofficial policy of total annihilation of anything Boko, no suspected member must be captured alive. This reprehensible scenario is most acceptable to the gullible masses. It draws the sympathy of the nation to the bloodhounds and creates the sense of fear of a clear and present danger in the populace. Tagging the dead as Boko makes our soldiers seem gallant and ready to battle an insurgency that some have sworn on their mother’s graves is a northern conspiracy to recapture political power and restore the ‘born to rule legacy’.
Only recently, this battle against insurgency harvested the deaths of 142 in a single raid in Haramistan. One can imagine the envy of Blair and Bush’s rag-tag Allied Forces who fail to achieve this feat even in Iraq.
The intelligence that turns in such casualties could not prevent attacks on Plateau towns and villages or ambushes. To be tagged Boko is to sign off your right to life enshrined in the constitution but unjusticiable in law. The crowd applauds the gallantry of our troops who shoot to kill and not to interrogate or gather intelligence.
The blood of the innocent is collateral for impunity. It is a height cheaper to reach than the provision of the elusive dividends of democracy. Killing or to use its proper term, culling is the best way to justify the billions appropriated for security. In this land, death is cheaper than electricity and pipe borne water. It costs less to attain than fixing roads and hospitals. It is easier to kill than provide jobs or quality education. Better to cull than to nurture. Brains are needed for success but not to kill and cover up.
This is Apo, built with the common wealth but pawned to the lawmakers who nightly drag their Ghana Must Go bags as medals for the perversion of justice. This is murder whose fate is sealed because even the FCDA Development Control has moved in, moaning about its impotency in enforcing uncontrolled development. It is sealed because, what they do best is demolish, not build or monitor compliance. It is sealed because demolition is easier to achieve than the prosecution of the cesspit of corruption that they sit on. Sealed, because it is easier to divert attention away from the murder than draw attention to the injustice within.
Apo is a rallying cry for justice in a land of prejudice. It was here, eight years ago that six promising youngsters were murdered in cold blood by bloodthirsty police officers writ large. It is a place that will always be haunted by the blood of the innocent. The frequent murders there, and the cover-ups that follow, are reminders that we are all pawns in the hands of those who ruin our nation with their quest to grab and grub without a sense of responsibility or accountability. It is evidence that officialdom lies and that justice is not for the poor.