That the news of the police rescue of Mrs Olaide John-Paul (the sister of former Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu) and her 12-year-old twin sons, Peter and Paul, was not well-received in all quarters is almost understandable. What should have been a celebration of an efficient rescue at a time we are undergoing some of the worst insecurity crises in our recent history turned into conspiracy theorising. Each time I see snide comments about how the whole thing was staged, I want to ask: why would Adelabu, or anyone in the government, employ such a costly gimmick? A frustrated presidential aide even blasted the critics who found the rapid rescue fishy. Well, there is a probability that, if the aide himself were not a government official (aka a paid apologist), he would probably smell a rat in the whole affair.
This is because when powerful forces obfuscate on weighty issues where they should offer clarity, people naturally fill the gaps in knowledge with wild tales. The consequence is that truth and falsehoods mix, and there will be no clean or credible extrication of the two. The Oyo State Government failed to adequately communicate with the public, and the result casts a shadow on police efforts. I cannot tell whether they leave the public in the dark out of arrogance or simply because accountability is alien to Nigerian leaders. Either way, they are not helping. Take, for instance, the ongoing abduction saga of the teachers and pupils kidnapped in Ogbomosho four weeks ago. First, it was Debo Ogundoyin, the speaker of the House of Assembly, who hinted that the terrorists were asking for “weapons, money, and concessions of future laws” as part of their ransom. The vagueness of his explanation left room for conspiracists to fill the gaps with tales of bandit-terrorists asking for money, vehicles, Sharia law, and the release of their incarcerated colleagues. Only for these terrorists to put one of their victims, Mrs Rachael Alamu, to debunk the stories saying they all they want is for the incarcerated to be released. The terrorists may be revising their demands based on social media uproar, who knows? It is also possible that some go-betweens are padding up the list of requests to get a cut out of what has become a sensational case, and the terrorists wanted to undercut them. That is why they did the unprecedented thing of using their victim to speak directly to the public. It would have been much cleaner if the state government had briefed the public on the terrorists’ demands instead of releasing information in snippets, thereby leaving room for rumours. By now, the names and faces of the people the kidnappers want freed should be public information. Let the world know, and someone out there might even come forward with credible information to help the police in their investigation.
