The woes of the two major security agencies in the country, the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Police force was further compounded on Monday February 5, 2018 while the Imo state Governor Rochas Okorocha held a ceremony where he ‘pardoned’ criminals in the state.

We will not dwell on the legality of Okorocha’s pardons, and the fact that he actually pardoned the cultists who killed 23 people in the Omuku community in Rivers State on New Year’s Day in 2018, and were arrested less than a month before their ‘pardons’.

The Governor threw shade at the military and police during the ceremony making no great effort to hide his increasing displeasure with both security agencies. While Okorocha was speaking, he said “Today, we are gladdened that the lives of these boys have not been left in the hands of the Military and Police who would have wasted them but today they are been reintegrated into our society to become good citizens.”

This is the first time a governor who isn’t directly dealing with some sort of internal crisis has openly denounced the head of the military and the police in the Person of LT. General Tukur Buratai and Mr Ibrahim Idris and affirmed the general consensus that both agencies under these men are corrupt. Cases of extrajudicial killings by the Nigerian Police and the Military have been chronicled by lots of individuals and human right bodies including the Amnesty International and the recent WISPI reports which named the Nigerian Police as the worst in the world.

All these accusations have been rebuffed by the military and the police over the years however the statement from Okorocha means even the executive is no longer pretending everything is fine. The statement by Okorocha that the Nigerian military and the police would have wasted the lives of the individuals granted Amnesty is a direct confirmation of the extrajudicial killings going on in the Nigerian Police and the Military.

This is also coming at a time the Benue state Governor accused the Police of not doing enough to protect the citizens of the state from rampaging fulani herdsmen.

Buratai, Idris, please don’t issue another rebuttal, listen to Okorocha (yes, even we know how ironic this sounds) and institute much needed reforms.