By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
As #ENDBADGOVERNMENT protest enters the ninth day, a coalition of Civil Society Organization (CSO) has demanded for the release of all protesters arrested from the time of #ENDSARS protest till date.
The group comprising of about 20 organisations alleged that security operatives have been secretly picking up protesters from several parts of the country, which according to them is against the law as protest is a right of all citizens.
The group in a statement by its coordinator, Comrade Peter Ameh lamented that the present administration has militarized the civil space simply because citizens were demanding for basic survival needs like end to hunger, reduction in cost of living and waste in cost of governance. He said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his nationwide broadcast failed to recognize the hardship in the system and did not proffer solution to the present economic challenges faced by ordinary Nigerians.
In a World Press Conference on Friday in Abuja, he expressed disappointment that President Tinubu who as a ‘protester in chief’ could allow security operative to arrest, manhandle and detains innocent protesters including journalists who were carrying out their legitimate duties.
He said, “The 1999 Constitution as amended, clearly protects our inalienable rights, including the right to protest. According to the constitution, one should not be held without being charged to court for more than 48 hours. Yet individuals like Alhaji Khand Aminu remain in detention without charges, languishing in SSS custody in Kaduna. This is unacceptable!
“Nigeria may be a lawless place, but our fundamental human rights will not be taken away from us. We demand that all those detained in connection to the ongoing protest be released with immediate effect else President Tinubu should be ready to arrest all of us”.
He argued that the level of military and security personnel and equipment mobilized by government to push back protesters only shows that government has the capacity and equipment to end insurgency if it is willing to tackle it.
“It is particularly disappointing to see this government, led by President Tinubu who once stood as an opposition leader and supported protests, now using state forces to suppress the rights of citizens. Section 19 and 40 of the Nigerian Constitution, along with Articles 19 and 20 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, guarantee our rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Yet, when Nigerians exercised these rights under this government led by President Tinubu, they face brutality and even death” he said.
Going down memory lane to narrate what triggered the present economic hardship in the country, Ameh said,
“Since President Tinubu’s inauguration on May 29, 2023, when he announced the removal of the fuel subsidy without any structured plan to mitigate the negative impacts on the people, the lives of ordinary Nigerians have been turned upside down. It is we, the common citizens, who are bearing the brunt of this decision, as we struggle under unpalatable socioeconomic conditions
“Our nation is in crisis. The Nigerian people have been plunged into deeper poverty and hardship. Subsistence living has vanished, leaving many families in distress. Parents struggle to put food on the table. Farmers live in fear of bandits and kidnappers, preventing them from cultivating their lands, which contributes to the food scarcity we face. The economic turmoil has led to unpaid school fees, and as of 2024, UNICEF has declared Nigeria as having the world’s highest number of out-of-school children. This is an urgent situation that demands immediate attention
“Crime rate are soaring as people become increasingly desperate. Communities are attacked, and villages are ransacked. Innocent lives are lost, and ancestral lands are seized. This is not the Nigeria we aspire to build. Our people are wat greedy we ask only for a decent standard of living, which can be provided by any competent leader”
Adding his voice was Maxwell Ukomah, representative of Advocate for Good Governance who argued that it was wrong for security agencies to abandon those who were involved in criminality and arrest genuine protesters.
“The government is trying all their possible best to be very brutal to peaceful protesters, when it can carry that brutality, to end insecurity, where they can use that same template to end banditry and kidnapping, they are bringing to peaceful protesters” Ukomah said.
He said that no matter the strategy government adopts, people will continue to protest until the high prices of food, cost of governance, transportation, unemployment and other harsh economic measures introduced by the present government is addressed.
Adding her voice is Sarah Ibrahim, leader of ARM who said that the demands of the protesters are clear. She added that every protester in detention must be released. She said that security agents should rather go after criminals and those destroying public facilities and not leaders of the protesters who were exercising their civic rights as enshrined in the constitution.