How Sules’s Maraba Task Force Is Justifying Call For Hunger Protests

The country has been in a state where the government and it’s officials have wished never to be at all in any way.

The tension among its officials and in the presidency has witnessed emergency meetings between the presidency and governors elected under the ruling All Progressives Congress APC.

Incidentally, try to assuage the sufferings of the Nigerian people as the Tinubu administration has tried, clearly did not go down well with some of the governors especially the governor of Nasarawa state Engnr A A Sule who has through his task force on development control, become a pain for the common people of the Maraba axis of the state.

If what they did to my wife a lawyer with over 14 years in the bar could be allowed to go without a response from Nigerians then I believe there is really disaster brewing and whatever happens in the form of the Arab spring should not be blamed on anyone other than the governor who mandated zealots to do a job whose intention is to hurt and impoverish the people. This must not be allowed to stay.

If they want the Maraba axis cleaned up, there are better ways to do it than turn poor people’s situation to misery.

Now the story of the case of my wife.

After closing from the court on Friday the 26th of July 2024, my wife went to the popular Orange market to buy foodstuffs for the family and for the church. My family usually prepares meals for the church every Sabbath day. After buying the food items, she went to Maraba with the intention of getting a Keke napep back home. She dropped the foodstuffs at a popular plaza by the junction in order to look for a wheel barrow that wheel push it to where she can get the Keke napep. She got the wheel barrow pusher and when she came back she discovered that members of the task force have confiscated what she bought from the market. She pleaded with them that the goods she bought was for her household and for the church but her pleas fell on deaf ears. She was asked by a member of the team to go to their office at the popular Muhammadu Buhari international market and wait. Her going there became even more futile and miserable.

All her prayers and plea to these officials even identifying herself as a lawyer fell on deaf ears. Her appeal to the officials that the foodstuffs were also for the church was also vehemently refused.

Infact vigilante officials were asked to push her out. What??? Somebody who identified herself as a lawyer who knows even the prosecutor at the mobile court being treated in such a way by her fellow Nigerians? It was the most pathetic day of her life. She came back home crying and the next morning when members of the church came to the house to prepare for the cooking, they met nothing because members of A A Sules’s Maraba Task Force has confiscated all what she bought for the family and the church.

ALSO READ: As NNPC, Dangote Trade Tackles…

My family slept without food that night and if not because my family have made up our minds to cook for the church made us to cough out another funds to ensure the church members mostly children eat as usual as we have consistently done since 2019 when we packed from our home city of Port Harcourt to this Nasarawa state, there would have been nothing for the church to entertain themselves with. The humiliating experience she suffered aside affecting her psychologically has also affected her health.

Now the question is under what law is the Maraba Task Force operating from? Do they have the right to confiscate goods of citizens coming from the market under the pretense of ensuring the road is kept open? Do they have the right to beat up innocent citizens as they have always done just to prove they are doing their jobs? The answer is definitely NO.

Keeping quiet in such a situation will be to allow impunity go unpunished. The likes of these overzealous officials must be weeded out from the task force and they must be given proper orientation as to the guidelines of their job.

It is also important to call out one Mr. Abdul the court clerk whom a superior officer asked that he return the items back to my wife but who refused to do so.

Even the next day, he switched off his phone number despite all attempts made to reach him by my wife and some of her female colleagues whom she reached out to.

The Arab spring began from the market place after a young man who borrowed a cart to struggle for his family had the cart seized and after pleas, he had to burn himself leading to the Arab spring that dethroned many governments in the Arab world then.

We do hope that the Maraba Task Force is not pushing Nigerians to an avoidable protests that will cost the government and the people so much pains.

Please this is a true story and we have decided to file a suit against them but it is important that all those reading this should share so it gets to the relevant authorities.

Written by Nwokoma Messiah