The Nationwide Human Rights Fee (NHRC) re-affirmed on Monday that peaceable protest is a proper of each Nigerian, cautioning towards any try to clamp down on protesters through the deliberate 1 October protests in numerous components of the nation.
Many Nigerians have known as for a nationwide protest to be held on Nigeria’s sixty fourth Independence Day Anniversary on Tuesday, in continuation of the starvation protest that was held for 10 days throughout varied states and Abuja in August.
“The proper to peaceable meeting is the cornerstone stone of our liberty and a vital instrument for selling the values of democracy and good governance,” the Govt Secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, stated at a press convention on the fee’s headquarters. “Protests are professional technique of voicing dissatisfactions and taking part in shaping citizen-centred governance and improvement outcomes.”
Mr Ojukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who condemned the widespread arrests, harassment, and killing of protesters through the August #EndBadGovernance protest, stated the NHRC is keeping track of the trials of these unlawfully detained in reference to the protest by regulation enforcement businesses.
He lamented the gross violations of human rights, arbitrary arrests of residents by regulation enforcement officers who had been but to be dropped at guide, and the looting of properties by hoodlums.
“The NHRC notes with nice concern, the clampdown of protesters and the following prison prosecutions following the August 2024 Finish Dangerous Governance Protests throughout components of Nigeria.
“The August protests led to lack of lives and private and non-private properties, however it’s but to be seen that there have been arrests and prosecution of regulation enforcement and safety brokers who had been primarily liable for these violations,” he stated, including, “The NHRC is worried in regards to the expenses of treason which have been imposed on a few of the protesters and have made this identified in varied boards. We’ll proceed to watch the scenario and the trials.”
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To avert the recurrence of the ugly options of the #EndBadGovernance protest, the NHRC has referred everybody to its complete protest advisory that was issued forward of the August demonstrations.
He vowed that the fee would monitor the actions of the state and non-state actors throughout Tuesday’s protest and guarantee accountability.
“The NHRC might be monitoring the protests throughout Nigeria and can make sure that state and non-state actors violating the precise to protests and different related human rights might be held accountable,” he stated.
#EndBadGovernance marked by widespread rights abuses
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the regulation enforcement businesses violated the rights of protesters and non-protesters through the #EndBadGovernance protest, regardless of the advisory issued by the NHRC to information the conduct of the protest.
The police and SSS who shot dwell ammunition at peaceable protesters and journalists, together with PREMIUM TIMES reporters, whereas they harassed, arbitrarily arrested and detained protesters and non-protesters together with minors.
The Committee to Shield Journalists (CPJ) reported that no less than 56 journalists had been assaulted or harassed by safety forces or unidentified residents whereas masking the #EndBadGovernance demonstrations in August.
The NHRC requested the police authorities to probe and sanction their officers who attacked journalists through the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests in Abuja. The police not solely ignored such calls however continued to take care of that its operatives acted professionally through the protests. PREMIUM TIMES documented the killing and injuring of individuals through the protest right here.
Based on the NHRC over 1,200 had been detained through the protest. Some have been charged with the allegation of making an attempt to topple President Bola Tinubu’s administration. A number of the detainees, together with minors who’re in jail with out cost are minors accused of terrorism by the police.
Many have stated the ruthlessness demonstrated by the safety forces through the #EndBadGovernance protests displays the authoritarian tendencies that the President Tinubu’s administration has persistently demonstrated since approaching board final yr. There was a spike within the circumstances of arrests and harassment of journalists, harassment of labour leaders with dissenting views and different residents on the flimsiest of excuses since Mr Tinubu got here to workplace final yr.
PREMIUM TIMES just lately revealed a compelling editorial warning that Mr Tinubu’s authorities was sliding in direction of dictatorship.
1 October protest
The deliberate 1 October protest is a continuation of the #EndBadGovernance protest which came about between the 1 to 10 August. The protests are impressed by the identical themes of financial hardship, dangerous governance, corruption and harsh financial insurance policies, together with removing of subsidies, elevated taxes and floating of the naira, which have characterised the President Bola Tinubu administration.
The protest is deliberate to coincide with Nigeria’s sixty fourth Independence anniversary.
Teams backing the protest, issued a press assertion on Sunday, urging the plenty to troop out on 1 October to precise their anger towards the hardship they’ve been grappling with since President Tinubu assumed workplace in Could final yr.
The teams embrace The Youth Rights Marketing campaign (YRC), Motion for Elementary Change (MFC), Joint Motion Entrance (JAF), Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Past (ASCAB), and Yoruba Revolutionary Motion (YOREM).
Others are Coalition for Involved Nigerian Residents (CCNC), Initiative for a Higher and Brighter Nigeria (IBBN), Motion for African Emancipation (MAE), Pan-African Consciousness Renaissance (PACOR-Nigeria), Committee for the Protection of Human Rights (CDHR).
READ ALSO: #EndBadGovernance Protest: Organisers declare 1 October Nationwide Day of Survival’
The organisers of the protest, which a few of them tagged, #FearlessinOctober, demand, amongst others, the discharge of these detained through the #EndBadGovernance protest, and an finish to the ‘anti-poor’ insurance policies and human rights violations. significantly the liberty of expression and meeting that has been eroded by this current administration.
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