By Emmanuel Onwubiko
"The Notorious kidnapper, Henry Chibueze, also known as, Vampire who escaped from prison custody on January 27,2017, when some gunmen believed to be his gang members stormed the Owerri High Court in Imo State and rescued him, killing two persons while many others sustained bullet wounds, has been killed in a gun duel with the police. "
"Vanguard gathered that the 30-year-old suspect, met his waterloo, around 1:30am today (March 2nd 2017) when operatives from the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT, who were deployed to Imo State, by the IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to track down Vimpaire and other members of his gang, trailed him to his hideout in Omu-Awa forrest in Ikwerre, Local Government Area of Rivers State".
The above was how the typical Nigerian media sensationally reported the gunning to death of one of Nigeria's most celebrated but notorious crime warlord known by his an alias of Vampire.
The police in Imo state also gave out what they say are the crimes of the late 'Vampire' which included the allegations that his gang masterminded the killing of 200 persons. Gruesomely evil as these crimes are, there's perhaps one reason he was typically named a vampire- because he feasts on bloodsheds.
The dare-devilry of this criminal vampire resembles how a scientist describes the feeding pattern of the animal known as vampire.
His words: "At night long after most visual predator have stopped prowling vampire bats emerge from their roots and take to the wing, flying low across the landscape in search of warm-blooded prey. Within an hour or two, having found appropriate victims and fed on their blood, the bats return to the roost to sleep, feed their young and interact with nestmates".
"Until recently little was known about either the behavior or the life history of the common vampire bat, desmodus rotundus, For many years biologist were more interested in the animal’s physiology than in its social organization, which was thought to be relatively simple".
The writer added thus: "A number of recent studies, however, reveal that vampire bats are remarkably social: female clusters together during the day but at night reassort themselves, creating a fluid social organization that is maintained for many years. Moreover, it is now known that long-term associations among females enable bats to regurgitate blood to one another on a regular basis and so significantly increase their chances of survival” (Food sharing in vampire bats; Gerald S. Wilkinson).
Now that we have seen how the criminal gangster known as vampire and the real vampire bats feeds, there's still a specie of vampire that has even taken over political powers at all levels in Nigeria and are still calling the shots- political vampires.
Politically exposed vampires are those persons that the late Music legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti called 'animals in human skin' or those identified in scriptural writings as 'Wolves in sheep's clothes'. Some of these vampires have had the misfortune of being elevated as governors and ministers in Nigeria and they had actively led to the demolition of our national economy through coordinated brigandage, bureaucratic corruption,political corruption outright economic crimes and other heinous crimes against humanity whose negative impacts includes collapse of basic infrastructures in the educational, health and road sectors leading concomittantly to the slaughter in needless circumstances of millions of our citizens. A lot of these political vampires are already being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes commission for monumental heist of public fund. Again, a professorial writer took time to document some characteristics of these political vampires both past and present.
He wrote thus: “Bureaucratic corruption manifests in a variety of situations in the public service particularly when officials use their positions to obtain undeserved favours either from members of the public or from public funds under their control."
He proceeded to cite an example: "Thus, when the Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar were indicted for unlawful withdrawals and embezzlement of funds belonging to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), it was a good case of the type of corruption".
He continued: "In similar vein, when the members of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Telecommunications indicted the Director General of Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) for deliberately withholding issuance of operating license to Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited (NIG-COMSAT) even when Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had given the necessary approval, it was seen as an act of bureaucratic corruption."
" Just as when the Former Governors of Abia State ( Dr Orji Uzor Kalu); Jigwa State( Alhaji Saminu Turaki); Enugu State ( Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani); Plateau State ( Chief Joshua Dariye) and Bayelsa State ( D.S.P Alamieyeseigha) were arraigned in various federal high courts for embezzlement of their state funds constitute manifestations of this type of corruption."
Dr. Igwenyi anational award winner of Member of the order of the Niger also wrote: "These acts of corruption in this domain often arise from award of contracts mostly for unviable projects; kickbacks for all manner of services; collusion; procumbent fraud; nepotism and favoritism which lower standards; personal use of official and government secrets; any improper use of position; deceit officials to obtain favour; preparation of fake proposals and outright stealing of all manner of government property either alone or in agreement with others in the same establishment,” (The Crime of Corruption in Nigeria: Laws, Issues and Solutions. BEN. O. IGWENYI).
Igwenyi's take on corruption completely captures my submission that although mostNigerians are reportedly happy that one variant of the human vampire that used to be amongst us in Imo State has found his waterloo courtesy of the bravery of some rate Nigerian police operatives who trailed him to an evil forest in Rivers state and terminated his life during what was said to be an exchange of gunfire, there's much more to worry about since a lot of political vampires are masquerading about as political office holders and are busy stealing from the people.
The Acting President and a Professor of law Yemi Osinbanjo has only few hours ago identified corrupt politicians as the bane of our development as a nation and the creators of the Economic adversities facing Nigerians, and ironically he made this statement on the days the news filtered in that the crook called vampire was gunned down by the police.
On the same day the Imo state governor Mr Rochas Okorocha was quoted as saying that politicians loot public treasuries because they are administered the oath of office as Moslems or Christians with the holy books of both religions but that they couldn't have the courage to steal if they are to be sworn in using the symbols of African Traditional Religions. His excuse is that the organised religion has a provision for repentace if a looter confesses but that under the African Traditional Religions it is an 'eye for an eye and a teeth for a teeth'.
So Nigerians who are rejoicing over the killing of an insignificant vampire must realise that so many of those they elected into offices in politics are worst predators than the notorious armed robber and kidnapper known as vampire who has just been taken care of by the police. How do you explain that for instance in each yearly budget the money budgeted for the feeding of the first family in the state House Abuja can be used to feed nearly one hundred families each from the 36 states of the federation and Abuja but yet only the privileged political class in Abuja benefits from the statutory appropriation yearly. Other Nigerians simply die from usially curable diseases like water borne diseases because the public healthcare is non-existent whereas the President travels to the best Western hospitals in Europe to consult doctors.
Dear Nigerians as you clap hands for the policemen that did the unthinkable by destroying the notorious armed robber Vampire who has killed over 200 people but remember that millions of Nigerians die from road accidents and criminal violence brought upon due to lack of functional roads network and an effective security architecture in Nigeria. So until these political vampires in Nigeria some of whom steal from internally displaced persons are destroyed, and Nigeria made great, we have no reason to be happy that one vampire is down and buried when we still have hundreds of political vampires busy looting our resources as i write.
*Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) blogs@www.huriwa@blogspot.com; www.emmanuelonwubiko.com.
