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Uzoma Okere: A Case Among Many

This is a note that I published on facebook two years ago after an unfortunate incident in Victoria Island, Lagos where a young lady was physically assaulted in broad daylight by military men. A few days ago, after being piqued at the sight of a military man violating the recently passed state law prohibiting the use of motorbikes on the Third Mainland bridge in Lagos, I decided to publish this article to a wider audience.

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November 5th, 2008, I felt elated. For apparently no reason. I mentioned this to my boss and he said it was just hope. Hope that if an african can rule God's own country, then there's no limit for me. I replied that there was no way that directly transcends to me here, in Nigeria.


Obama being the US president doesn't stop some cretin in a uniform under the guise of being a police "officer" harassing me over a 20 naira note. Or PHCN doing their thing. Or some idiotic politician laughing in my face as he loots the treasury I pay my taxes into.


November 2008, a few days before the Uzoma Okere incident, I headed to the place I call home after a hard day at work. Only to be accosted by three armed men in police uniform in one corner. They asked what I carried and I said it was my laptop. The "intelligence" officer (plain clothes with a laminated ID-card but with obviously no intelligence) asked for the receipt. I shouldn't have to produce one but I did. Then the display of madness began.


The goons insisted the receipt was 'fake'. It was only as original as their uniforms (or more original) considering the fact that it had the serial number and model of the laptop on it. Also, considering the fact that a receipt is proof of ownership, I wonder what the idiots expected I should use to prove that a proof of ownership was not 'fake'.


My laptop incident was resolved easily. It's just sad that I could have easily spent a night in a cell for moving around with my own property. I called up the security team from my place of work and they used their connections and that was that.


But what if I was self-employed? Or working in a business center?


What if Uzoma's dad was a carpenter?


What if I was like the teenage vulcanizer apprentice that was tossed into the police vehicle (a bus) beside me with his means of livelihood, the borrowed vulcanizer equipment, left on the streets?


Bottom-line, (I'm sorry to say) we live in a bloody undeveloped, undeveloping, crisis-ridden 3rd world country with complacent citizens who will not fight and bloated politicians that only get replaced when they are too sick to steal. The risk of actually living in this country is so high, it's a wonder how people live to 35.


We don't have a police force. We only have licensed criminals on the streets, taxing tax-payers.


And their atrocities grow bolder by the day.


A lot of similar cases go unnoticed in this country. Uzoma's case only came to limelight because someone filmed it and her father was connected enough to push it.


Early this year (2 years after the incident), it appeared some semblance of justice was to be served with a court ordering Uzoma's compensation.

http://www.nigeriancuriosity.com/2010/01/uzoma-okere-won-n100-mn-video.html


A month after that the court order was appealed.

http://www.nigerianbestforum.com/generaltopics/?p=33981


And the story will continue....
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