Dear Governor Emmanuel, an Akwa Ibom son was killed on Thursday
It is getting to 48 hours since some youths in our State provided a cover – through a protest that had lost its essence – for criminals to loot and destroy property in our dear State, Akwa Ibom, in the evening of Thursday 22nd October 2020.
In the midst of that mindless looting, arson and other violent crimes, Mr Iniobong Lyons, an indigene of Okop Ndua Erong, Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area was murdered.
Lyons, a devout member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party and one of the coordinators of grassroots support for Governor Udom Emmanuel in 2015 and 2019, was reportedly killed by a stray bullet shot by a yet-to-be-identified policeman who tried to scare the looters and arsonists around Aka road by Udo Udoma roundabout.
The late Iniobong Lyons, I learnt was returning from a church programme, according to a councillor from Ibesikpo Asutan who wrote that he saw and spoke with him few metres away from where the bullet hit him on the head leading to his untimely death. Photos of his remains are on Facebook.
Let me note satisfactorily that on Friday 23rd, the Akwa Ibom State Government had gone on a damage assessment tour of facilities destroyed by the looters and arsonists and had taken inventory of the material losses incurred by the State and private business owners. This was thoughtfully followed by the clean up of the shatters – glasses, woods, irons and ashes – that littered major roads and streets where the attacks were launched.
Late in the evening of Friday 23rd October, the Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, made a broadcast to the State which was entitled “let there be peace.” After listening to the Governor’s broadcast and reading the text of his broadcast on social media time and again, I have not seen where mention was made on the murder of Iniobong Lyons, despite the fact that this was a solo case and should deserve at least a mention by the Governor.
Does the blood of Iniobong Lyons not matter to us?
In sympathising with those who were “brutalised” by those looters and hooligans, right-thinking Akwa Ibomites had expected the Governor who has the utmost obligation and burden to ensure the safety of lives and property in the State, to talk about the murder of Iniobong Lyons.
I had expected the thousands of Akwa Ibom people who on social media were either tweeting, or leading conversations on the massacre in Lagos State on Instablog and Facebook before those arsonists hit the State on Thursday to also tweet about Iniobong Lyons. I am utterly surprised that the mass majority of Akwa Ibom people who showed empathy to those reportedly killed in Lagos State has failed to show a fraction of such empathy to their brother, a respected father and servant of God, who had no business in the protest but was killed while returning from his legitimate business to meet with his family that evening. That he was not killed in Lagos does not mean he was not important!
Since the people cannot speak for Iniobong Lyons, should his Governor also fail to acknowledge his death? Will the Akwa Ibom State Government fail to ask for the blood of Iniobong Lyons?
Who killed Iniobong Lyons? He died in the cruelest of ways!
Yesterday, the Akwa Ibom State Police command addressed select media organisations on the arrest made and items recovered from thieves who looted shops in Uyo on Thursday. Photos and video clips of the press briefing were served up on Facebook and, I have watched the video and have not seen where the police said anything about the murder of Iniobong Lyons. #EndSARS was about police brutality. The murder of Iniobong Lyons is a case of brutality.
There must be justice everywhere for everyone killed unlawfully or maimed by security agents or anyone else. Justice must be served in the case of Iniobong Lyons. He was unlawfully murdered.
Iniobong Lyons may not have anyone to speak for him; shouldn’t the Akwa Ibom State Government speak for him? We must end police brutality, senseless shootings and gun gyrations. The murder of Iniobong Lyons in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Thursday, is a litmus test for the campaigners, financiers and supporters of #endpolicebrutality.
This case will test our collective humanity, and especially the sincerity of the very religious humanists among us who stood up on social media for those reportedly killed in Lagos State.
Abasifreke Effiong
24-10-2020
