By Harun Elbinawi
I saw the 12 minutes video of the popular Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie, on his role in the Nigerian army sponsored film "Fatal Arrogance". The excuses he gave are unimpressive, irrational, absurd assumptions and crude ranting of a greedy man with a wicked heart.
His claim that he was not aware of the theme and script of the film before accepting the contract to feature is extremely absurd. An experienced actor like him will never act in such a manner.
Desperately trying to minimize his role in the film production as a " guest actor" is deceptive and a mark of immorality of the highest order. He is the most highest paid actor in that film and the genocidal barbarians that sponsored that film deliberately picked him.
And saying he used a fictitious name in the film that no Nigerian is bearing is childish. In a film designed to denigrate and demonize Sheikh Zakzaky and the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, who expect Pete Edochie to bear "Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky"?
And asking people not to condemn that film until the film is finished despite the availability to various video clips and pictures of the film is simplistic and a hangover of a drown man who received millions of Naria to justify the Saudi-sponsored #ShiaGenocide in Nigeria.
It is important to note that the Nigerian army sponsored a book "Fatal Arrogance" that is full of hate, fraudulent propaganda, campaign of calumny and demonization of Sheikh Zakzaky and the Movement to justify Shia genocide in Nigeria. The film that the same Nigerian army is sponsoring is an extension of this book.
The cloths Pete Edochie worn in that film is the exact replica of the attires of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky. Whoever saw the video clips of that film knows where the arrow is heading to. Peaceful protesters of the Movement were wickedly depicted as armed protesters armed with guns and knives tasty for the blood of the innocent. Women were depicted carrying knives. If these acts are not demonization, what are they?
The Nigerian army brutally murdered more than one thousand followers on Sheikh Zakzaky in Zaria in December 2015. The whole world is aware of this. A competent court freed Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife from the illegal detention of the Buhari régime of which President Buhari contemptuously refused to obey the court. Massive peaceful #FreeZakzaky protest are taking place daily in Nigeria. Hundreds of these protesters have been killed by the Nigerian army and police.
Claims by Pete Edochie that his life was threatened is a quest by the drown greedy man to attract cheap sympathy from Nigerians. I read the petition the Islamic Movement in Nigeria sent to the Inspector General of Police and there is no single threat to anybody. The greedy man was unmasked so he is trying to feint innocence.
On a final note, Pete Edochie must understand that the issue of Zaria genocide and various massacres of Shia civilians in Nigeria are before the International Criminal court, #ICC, and any attempt to justify these heinous crimes against humanity is trampling on the Rome Status of the court that Nigeria signed.
Harun Elbinawi
elbinawi@yahoo.com