By Pius Mordi
When a man who allegedly insulted, assaulted and dehumanized people that worked for him and had the guts to seek power through elections; when a man allegedly stripped his workers, including a married woman and mother stark naked, paraded them in front of a camera and distributed the video on the social media because they allegedly accepted voluntary monetary tips from clients that stayed in his hotel, comes out to complain about crime in the society, that society has lost its soul.
Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, a fugitive from the law, a serial abuser of rights of his workers, a man that took delight in dehumanizing another man’s wife, a man that allegedly filmed and distributed the video of four women, including a mother and wife of another man he stripped naked ought to be behind bars to answer for his crime.
Audaciously, he sought to be voted the governor of Delta State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Of course, the party obliged. However, seeing that he had long unraveled himself as unfit for leadership, Gbagi withdrew from the free and open primary election of the party and sought refuge in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) where he became the sole proprietor.
But for Nigeria’s dysfunctional institutions, he ought to be serving time. In a report published by an online journal, Gbagi seemingly derided the judiciary when he spuriously alleged that a gazette admitted in evidence and accepted by judges, including the erudite justices of the Supreme Court is fake. Invariably, he is flaunting his air of invisibility to ridiculous level. Indeed, it was an audacious insult on the judiciary for Gbagi to allegedly insinuate that all the judges accepted an official gazette only he himself has deemed as forged.
But for the absence of strong and independent institutions as well as the fact that all the institutions of law enforcement are under the control of the Federal Government, Gbagi should have been explaining before the court his decision to allegedly abuse the rights of his workers. Having been legally declared wanted by the Nigeria Police in September 2022 over his shameful alleged abuse of his workers, including a married woman he stripped naked, he became a fugitive and hid from summons sent to him by the Police.
The people of Delta State knew long ago that Gbagi is unfit to be their governor and in PDP, they found a platform for making that clear as he got less than 5,000 votes in the governorship election.
Gbagi and his ilk are the problem with our society. He has taken advantage of the failure of our institutions and continues to corrupt the society.
For a fugitive from the law, Gbagi should quietly defend himself on the suit filed by his former employees seeking N1 billion compensation and apology from him for the harm he visited on them. He will seek reprieve from the same law courts he just derided.
