The activist had, while speaking during a panel session at the NBA conference, labelled the personnel of the Nigerian military, the police, Nigeria Immigration and Nigerian Customs as “unknown gunmen.”
Social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, otherwise known as VeryDarkMan, has apologised to all Nigeria’s security and enforcement agencies over his controversial remarks at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
“To the families of these heroes that might have also felt offended by this speech, knowing fully well that their brother, their sister, their son, their husband fought and died for this country, I am really, really sorry,” he said.
The activist had, while speaking during a panel session at the NBA conference, labelled the personnel of the Nigerian military, the police, Nigeria Immigration and Nigerian Customs as “unknown gunmen.”
He equally alleged that police officers at checkpoints share information about travellers with kidnappers and terrorists.
The police, in response, invited the activist to provide evidence for his allegation.
In the Facebook video on Friday, Mr Otse said he has reconsidered the remarks and believes he did not intend to accuse all security operatives of being involved in criminality.
“I don’t think I was fair to a lot of people, particularly the speech where I said that the military are the unknown gunmen, the police are the unknown gunmen, you know, the immigration, the customs.
“I know exactly what I was trying to say because, I mean, I have evidence to back up my claim, but I wasn’t fair to a lot of people in that speech,” he said.
The activist stressed that he was particularly unfair to security operatives who genuinely risk their lives fighting criminality and terrorism.
“That speech was not fair, especially to the soldiers that are in the bushes fighting Boko Haram to protect our lands, to protect our lives, and to protect our families.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say they are also the unknown gunmen, to be very honest, because these people have laid down their lives,” he said.
He emphasised that his motive was to draw attention to alleged corruption and sabotage by some personnel within Nigeria’s security agencies.
“My speech was not to discourage you. My speech was entirely to talk about the bad eggs in our security operative, our security forces, is to put attention on the bad eggs, so that the leaders in these security settings will look inward and to see that sometimes information are being leaked and their own people are sabotaging them,” he said.
Mr Otse acknowledged that he was truthful in his claims, his comments were filled with unfair generalisations.
“But by passing that speech, like I said, it seems like I was generalising and it’s not fair to the fallen soldiers,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “(There’s) a lot of corrupt generals, a lot of high-ranking police officers are corrupt, a lot of junior officers are corrupt, a lot of them are there.
“But there’s still a lot of more good people, a lot of more good people, and I know a lot of them.”
Mr Otse particularly apologised to the Chief of Defence Staff and the leadership of the country’s security agencies.
“So I will go further to say to the Chief of Defence Staff. Sir, I really want to apologise for that speech, and I don’t want to discourage your boys.
“Please extend my apologies to your boys, to the ones that are in the bush protecting our lands,” he said.
My worry
Mr Otse expressed his worry that genuine soldiers who fight diligently in the bush could be discouraged upon coming across the video of his comments at the NBA conference.
“Me and the police, we work steadily. I give, sometimes I share police information, tell them, ‘Oh, this is what is happening here, please, can you intercept,” he said.
He urged security operatives who were sincerely protecting the country not to be discouraged by his comments.
“We’re there behind you now, and we’ll always support you. You know, and we are part of this thing, security is for all of us,” he said.
Mr Otse reiterated his earlier warning to security operatives involved in sabotage,arms supply and leaking information to terrorists.
“But then again, to the bad eggs, your days are numbered. To all of you in the military that are sabotaging and causing deaths to your officers, your days are numbered,” he stated.
