* ASHA Speaker, kalu
By Uche Aguoru

 I have read so many accounts by the usual defenders of the depraved oligarchy currently in place in Abia state, in defense of Rt. Honourable Chikwendu Kalu the speaker of the Abia House of Assembly over the shooting of armless road safety operatives in their legitimate duty post, 99.9% of the articles for want of what to say to defend the 
indefensible resorted to blaming the officers of the FRSC  for doing the duties they were assigned to do, and I begin to wonder where lies the conscience of men.
* The shot FRSC officers


I have sat down quietly trying to disentangle what would make a public servant in the rank of the speaker of a state’s legislative assembly order the shooting of an unarmed  officer if not for foolish pride and reckless show of power, the argument of whether or not the speaker was present at the scene of the incident, does not hold water, as the road safety men on the scene had insisted that the speaker was at the scene and personally ordered the shooting of the boy who challenged his wife in an argument.

 I was disappointment when the police authorities forgot to come out with the usual accidental discharge fabrication to cover up and protect the image of the police and the speaker, I was even shocked when I didn’t hear the state government and the state house of assembly spokesman propound a theory of security threat on the live of the speaker and his wife along the highway that warranted an exchange of fire leading to the pumping of two live bullets in the buttocks of the young FRSC officer,  Emeka Ogbujah attached to Umuika office of the FRSC.

 What went wrong, why were there no excuses this time around to cover up the attempted murder of innocent Emeka Ogbujah, and his colleagues, according to Emeka’s account, though in an excruciating pain in his hospital bed, he managed to tell me that they tried to stop an over speeding vehicle whose occupants were not on seatbelt but instead of them to slow down and identify themselves with the usual esprit d,core, they sped past in an attempt to run them over and later reversed back with the man in the front jumping down from the vehicle and asking if they were so blind that they cannot identify Ogas wife, he (Emeka) shouted back at him, asking, who the Oga was that they can’t be stopped, and that was what angered the wife of the speaker who jumped down from the vehicle and ordered her details comprising a policeman and DSS officer to beat them up, it was at that point that they tried to defend themselves against the armed security officers who were tearing away at their uniforms and beating them up, having seen that the FRSC operatives outnumbered her security details and cannot be easily beaten up despite the arms they were carrying, the speakers wife called the husband who did not waste time in arriving at the scene with more heavily armed policemen and went straight to his wife, and being in no mood to listen to any body or to find out what really happened, ordered the police men to shoot at them.

 In my curiosity and in an attempt to excuse the speaker of any wrong doing in the shooting incident, I called the office of the spokesman of the FRSC Abia command and asked if the act setting up the road safety commission protects certain persons (e.g. Wives of political office holders) from being checked along the highways. And the answer I got was a cold NO. When I enquired further as to why the speaker was not allowed to see the victim in his hospital bed? They asked what if he had died, would he have come for his burial?

 The excuse of over zealousness on the part of the policemen sounds very watery, according to eye witness accounts, the shootings were sporadic and the beatings random that he even mistook it for an armed robbery operation, while the official federal road safety vehicle was sprayed with live bullets and the battery seized, I can bet my last coin, that if not on orders, no trained security personnel can get that overzealous on an unarmed paramilitary officer, where then lies the spirit of esprit 'd corps?

 My worry now is, if this type of treatment can be meted out on a federal agent on official duty, what will then happen to an ordinary Abian who mistakenly stands on the way of any of those we used our voters card to turn to an overnight tingod, who by virtue of the position he/she occupies has become above the law?

 Your guess is as good as mine.

 Aguoru writes from Umuahia