Emeka Mamah
11 October 2008
Kaduna-A kaduna-based musician and widow, Mrs. Amulunnweze Adadiniba Egbunike did not bargain for what she experienced penultimate weekend at the Inspector-General of Police hall, Police College in Kaduna.
The multi-talented woman who has to her credit, three gospel and five high life albums had earlier dropped out of circulation musically, after signing the dotted lines following her husband's insistence that she turn into a full-time housewife.
Unfortunately, the husband died and she was saddled with the onerous responsibility of catering for her three sons and many grand daughters. She nevertheless braced up to the task ahead and dusted her musical equipments for a full plunge into her career.
This, she prayed will not only assist her family but play noble role in her desire to restore the glory of the seemingly dying high life music.However, all her efforts came to nullity on October 4th, 2008 at the IGP hall in Police College, Kaduna where she had earlier booked for the launching and life performance. She organized the programme in conjunction with the Center for the Promotion of Igbo language, arts and culture in Kaduna.
Surprisingly, just as the event was about to kick-off, a team of policemen invaded the hall and disrupted the programme claiming that the hall was booked for a ceremony by the son of a serving Commissioner of Police who just passed out from Nigerian Defence Academy. All efforts by the musician and her teeming guests to make the Police see reason failed as they were all driven away from the hall and forced to use an open space.
No sooner had they consented to settle down in the narrow open space than nature also let out it's fury. A torrential rainfall finally disrupted the event and ended up forcing the ceremony to an abrupt end. The helpless widow lost virtually all she prepared for the event and ended up not realizing a kobo. The aggrieved widow who spoke with Crime Guard lamented that a Commissioner of Police could wield such naked power in these days of democracy and Rule of Law and called on the powers that be to check the excesses of the police boss.Excerpts: "My names are Amulunnweze Adadiniba Egbunike.
I am from Onitsha in Anambra State.I came into music through my father because my daddy, late Mr. Patrick Emelu was a musician and also a court clerk. Although he is dead now, all his children know how to sing and dance. That was how I became a musician, so that my father's name will not vanish."My musical career was however disrupted when I got married and my husband insisted that I should abandon it and become a full time house wife and I was actually out of music until my husband also died and I became idle.
At a point, I just said to myself, what am I doing to myself. I am a musician, why don't I do what I know how to do best? That was how I started my new album and along the line, this group which promotes Igbo arts and culture came up with the idea that I should launch it. They had reasoned that the Igbo race has lost most of their high life musicians and that all hopes were not lost with my appearing on the scene at this point in time."In fact, what happened to me in October 4 at the Police College was shocking.
The Police College authorities in Kaduna gave us the IG's hall for use on that day. We then swept the hall and cleaned it for use. The event was billed to start at 12 noon and many guests had been invited from far and wide. We had gone to the hall earlier in the morning to mount our musical instruments. However, problems started at about 11 am, just one hour to the occasion proper when we saw some armed policemen dismantling our musical equipment.
"When we enquired from them the reasons for their action, they simply told us that they were acting on orders from above. It was when we resisted the move that one senior police officer informed us that the person who ordered the dismantling of the equipment is the present Commissioner of Police in charge of Plateau State, Mr. Sampson Uda. Uda was said to have acted this way because his son graduated from the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) that same day and he wanted to use the hall for the party he hosted for his son. But I am at a loss because the hall was given to us over thre
e weeks before the event and the same Commissioner of Police even booked the Police Officers Mess belonging to the Kaduna State Police Command, just opposite the Police College.
He had earlier mounted his canopies at the Police Officers's Mess where he originally proposed to host his friends and relations."So, this was how the police authorities threw us out of the hall after giving us the place to use. We could not find any alternative venue and it was at that time that we started looking for canopies, chairs, generating sets to mount outside the hall.
The event did not take off before 5 pm and even when it started, a heavy rain which was preceded by a strong wind came and disrupted the event finally."In fact, we lost everything as invited guests who waited from 12noon till 5pm when we started fixing our instruments left when the rains came. It was really terrible and I never believed that anything like that could happen to any Nigerian. I do not wish what happened to me on October 4 to happen to even my wor
st enemy."So far, nobody has tendered any apologies to me for the losses I incurred. Maybe because they feel that the hall belongs to them and that they can treat people anyhow. But it is not fair. You can not approve the use of a hall for somebody and give the person the keys to the place three days earlier only to come back later and deny him/her the facility in a very crude manner. I don't know if this one is the type of Rule of Law and due process that they are talking about. I don't know whether it is because we are not in the police or military.
This is not nice. It is very primitive, and inhuman," she stated.Speaking also with Crime Guard, Mr. Chris Agu, the Director of Publicity and Logistics at the Center that organized the event said, " The Police College authorities approved the use of the hall for us on September 20, 2008 and gave us the keys formally on October 2, 2008; that was just two days to the event. We swept the place because the people who used the facility during the Sallah and Independence Day celebrations did not sweep the hall.
They left the place littered with all sorts of rubbish. " In fact, the back up musicians had arrived from Onitsha, Anambra State and we had decorated the hall, when suddenly some senior police officers led by a Deputy Commissioner came into the hall at about 11am.
My message to them is that they should realize that we are in a democracy and that President Umaru Yar'Adua himself believes in the Rule of Law. Even Yar'Adua will not do this to any Nigerian. I am sure that even the various military governments that ruled us did not engage in this type of savagery."
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