Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has lambasted the Nigeria Police Force, FCT Command, for detaining several individuals who gathered at Moshood Abiola Stadium to protest on Saturday.
The rights group noted that the ‘unconstitutional’ arrests occurred just outside the stadium, the designated area for the protest.
The organizers of the protest had sought permission to use Eagle Square but were denied access and the FCT Police authorities secured a court order confining the protesters to the MKO Abiola National Stadium.
HURIWA, citing media reports, explained that on the third day of the protest, the demonstrators were absent from the stadium in the early morning. However, around 11:00 am, small groups began to assemble.
As the numbers grew, the Police responded with gunfire and teargas, leading to multiple arrests.
HURIWA lamented that even journalists present at the scene were also detained, although they were subsequently released after identifying themselves and were instructed to vacate the premises immediately.
HURIWA described these gestapo type operational mode of the police as reminiscent of a military dictatorship.
“Nigerians must wake up from slumber and not allow the manifestation of the North Korean or Russian’s Putin type of totalitarianism in Nigeria. We must defend the Nigerian democracy,” HURIWA said in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.
“We in HURIWA, wholeheartedly condemn these despicable, reprehensible and criminal approach of the operatives of the Nigeria Police Force especially in the federal capital territory just as we are demanding that the Inspector General of Police and the police service commission must identify the trigger happy police operatives in Abuja and Suleja who shot live bullets at protesters who did not pose any danger to the lives of these brutes in police uniform.
“We condemn the Kaduna State police commissioner who said that henceforth protesters will be treated as violators of the law.
“HURIWA said the poor approaches to law enforcement devoid of any kind of respect for the fundamental rights of citizens shows that there is the immediate need for a comprehensive reforms of the current security architecture in Nigeria with specific reference to the Nigeria Police Force.
“These campaigns of brutality and dehumanization of protesters in Nigeria by the police will have significant repercussions if not now but in the near future. These unprofessional and criminal conducts of the police seen extensively all over the country will reignite another #ENDSARS PROTESTS that may take the security services unaware unless those police operatives who shot at protesters are identified, prosecuted and sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of the laws of Nigeria.
“The police operatives behaved so crudely without any regard to the fundamental principles of human rights and the rules of engagement,” the statement added.