By Hadiza Suleman
The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has condemned what it called “the invasion” of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headquarters in Abuja by the men and officers of the Nigeria Police.
CLO also warned against prosecuting bad governance protesters for hoisting Russian flags during the protest, which began August 1.
The Executive Director of CLO, Comrade Ibuchukwu Ohabuenyi Ezike, stated that the police carted away materials from the headquarters, claiming that they were used in organising and inciting the protesters of the #Endbadgovernance protest which kicked off August 1, 2024, across Nígeria.
Quoting him, “CLO condemns in its strongest term the unlawful and arrogant manner in which our law enforcement agencies, predominantly the police, invade people’s homes and offices at odd hours even without warrants of court.”
He recalled that on August 9, 2009, similar treatment was visited on the CLO at its national headquarters in Lagos.
Quoting him, “Our office was illegally sealed for one year with our key office materials, laptops, books and project facilities carted away till a court order vacated them from our premises. Till date, the police have defiantly refused to obey the judgment of the court that ordered them to pay CLO compensations and return its stolen property.
“Under former president Muhammad Buhari’s regime, police, DSS, EFCC and other repressive institutions of coercion were used to intimidate and coerce judicial officers and other men and women of impeccable, strong characters to submission.
“It is an abuse of democratic process for a government that was elected by the people to turn around and use its institutions of coercion to oppress its citizens.”
The group said it was unbelievable that President Bola Tinubu, who protested against both military and civilian regimes before 2015, “can resort to this illegal use of state machinery to threaten and abuse the rights of the natives.”
Ezike demanded that the police return the carted NLC property without delay and tender an apology to NLC.
On the Russian flag, CLO warned the federal government of Nigeria to steer clear of the Russian flag controversy in the aftermath of the #Endbadgovernance protest by releasing all those detained for armlessly flying the Russian flag in some parts of Nígeria.
He said, “We also urge the government to drop the proposed criminal charges against the suspects and end the case in that way, especially as we have not found any section of our constitution that criminalizes the flying of other countries’ flags in Nigeria.
“Moreover, Russia has denied any involvement in the flag matter. Nígerian authorities should, therefore, allow the sleeping dog to lie as our country does not have the capacity to engage in any confusion that may culminate in both human and material losses.”
Ezike charged “strong military and other security agencies to divert their attention and energies to combatting insecurity threatening Nígeria and leave the Russian flag matter alone”.
He advised the Tinubu government to focus its minds and intelligence more on how to address “the stinking corruption in the system, hunger, poverty, insecurity and subsidy crisis threatening our country and people before Nigerian youth would return to the protest,” adding that, “These are the concerns of the CLO and all patriotic Nígerians, at least, for now. May a stitch in time save us nine.”
