If Nigeria were a nation where the spirit and letters of the constitution are not subjected to the whims and impulses of certain individuals, where the rule of law is a concrete political and economic legal concept that is binding on everyone and not an abstract and empty legal platitude that is selectively enforced, Senator Fadahunsi would be standing trial by now.
On Monday, Senator for Osun East Senatorial District, Francis Fadahunsi, during a political gathering in his home town, Ilesa, directed his supporters to attack, maim and kill members of the Accord Party and residents of the state who will not be voting for the All Progressives Congress in Saturday’s governorship poll in the state.
The remark elicited instant fury and condemnation, with many wondering why a sitting senator would resort to such crude, primitive and destructive antics in the name of politics, with his inciting and incendiary remarks that call for electoral violence. For a state that has been on the edge owing to troubling incidents and disconcerting events that have characterised the build-up to the gubernatorial election, Senator Fadahunsi’s shocking and unsettling utterances are sure to amplify tension and create an atmosphere of deep distrust and uncertainty in a milieu that’s already fraught with trepidation.
If Fadahunsi had thought his membership of the ruling party would shield him from any backlash, excoriation and public scrutiny that his inflammatory, reckless and uninspiring statement may have triggered, it did not take long for that notion to dissolve into a slop of relentless public castigation. No sooner had he made the statement than Nigerians started calling for his arrest and suspension as a member of the Senate.
Fadahunsi denied call for physical violence
In a statement issued by his media office in Osogbo on Tuesday and titled, “Kill Osun Accord with Votes, Not Violence, Senator Fadahunsi Tells APC,” the senator said he was misconstrued, and his remarks were not a call for physical violence. According to the statement, Fadahunsi’s comment was “a call on supporters to overwhelmingly reject the Accord Party at the ballot box through lawful, peaceful and democratic means during the August 15 governorship election. For the avoidance of doubt, the Senator’s statement was purely political and metaphorical”
The senator’s media office further maintained that the remark did not portray Fadahunsi as an advocate of violence against members of the Accord Party or any other political organisation.
“At no point did Senator Fadahunsi advocate violence, intimidation or any form of physical attack against members or supporters of the Accord Party or any other political party. His consistent position has always been that elections should be decided by the votes of the people and not by force,” the statement further read.
Fadahunsi also urged APC supporters and other political actors to maintain peace and obey the law throughout the electoral process.
Police invitation
On Tuesday, the police invited the Senator for questioning following public pressure. The senator arrived at the State Police Command headquarters at about 2:25pm on Wednesday, accompanied by one of his aides. He was interrogated in the investigation room of the Department of Criminal Investigation, CID, where he was led into an investigation room by the Commissioner of Police in charge of election duty, Samuel Etaifo, alongside other senior police officers.
Journalists were not allowed into the investigation room, a separate building away from the office of the Commissioner of Police where the senator spent about one hour and 57 minutes. He was subsequently taken to the office of the Commissioner of Police, where he spent another 20 minutes before returning to the CID. Fadahunsi was later joined by a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Adebayo Adeleke, and a legal practitioner, Edmund Biriomoni, before he was eventually released by the police around 4:45pm.
Not many people are holding their breath regarding the meeting between Senator Fadahunsi and the police over his remarks because nothing will likely come out of it, and the police’s refusal to make public the details of his interrogation already points to this. He won’t be prosecuted for sedition or related offences, and he won’t be suspended as a senator. In fact, Senator Fadahunsi’s statement merely underscores the jarring desperation and insidious win-at-all-costs disposition of the average Nigerian politician, particularly those in the ruling APC.
The senator is an epitome of the mindless impunity, perversion and crassness that have permeated and destroyed the firmament of our politics and socio-economic lives as a whole. He may have denied or recanted what he was captured on video saying, but we see the result of such distasteful and unconscionable remarks in our polity even when they are not made in full glare of the public. If Nigeria were a nation where the spirit and letter of the constitution are not subjected to the whims and impulses of certain individuals, where the rule of law is a concrete political and economic legal concept that is binding on everyone and not an abstract and empty legal platitude that is selectively enforced, Senator Fadahunsi would be standing trial by now. But Nigeria is no longer that country where the threat of violence and an explicit command to kill political adversaries carry any grave and career-ending consequences. If anything, it cements your place in the dark pantheon of gritty, vicious and pragmatic politicians.
