As more reaction continues to trail Sunday night’s disruption of a meeting of the G-7 governors at the Kano State governor’s lodge in Asokoro Abuja by a team of policemen led by one CSP Nnanna Ama, the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) has joined the growing list of groups and individuals that have condemned the action of the police.
The group said the police action was condemnable because the governors were holding a peaceful meeting and have the constitutional rights to freedom of movement and peaceful assembly as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.
In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja and endorsed jointly by the national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the national media affairs director; Miss. Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA decried the spate of incessant undemocratic and illegal disruptions by operatives of the Nigerian Police on purported orders from ‘above’ of peaceful assembly of Nigerian citizens, who are also high public office holders, saying it is a mere subterfuge for the institutionalization of dictatorship and tyranny.
The Rights group noted that these interferences by armed policemen under the direct command of the Inspector General of Police, Mr. M.D Abubakar amounted to high treason which according to the group, must be strongly frowned at and the perpetrators arrested and prosecuted to preserve the sanctity of the Nigerian Constitution.
The statement said, “We are studying the ugly situations with the long term plan of possibly filing a petition with the United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Human Rights Council to call on these bodies to intervene and stop the unfolding carefully choreographed plot by reactionary forces in the Nigerian Police to undermine the advancement of democracy through flagrant curtailing and unconstitutional abridgment of the fundamental human rights of Nigerian citizens.
-Daily Trust
