The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as despicable, reprehensible and criminal, the invasions by security forces of the Abuja national Secretariat of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Lagos head office of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).
The Rights group said that it is tragic that armed security agents have been allowed to go on rampage maiming and killing protesters just as the Rights group described these gestapo type of invasions of offices of select independent groups and workers unions as symptomatic of the emergence of totalitarianism which it says Nigerians must resist.
“We are calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stop the security forces from these incessant, lawless and subversive invasions of offices of law abiding non-governmental institutions like the Nigerian Labour Congress and offices of civil Rights groups in the Country.
These invasions constitute a clear and present danger to the survival of democracy in Nigeria and would make Nigeria look like a banana Republic in the eyes of the members of the international community.”
HURIWA recalled that the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, had raised the alarm over the invasion of its national headquarters, Right House, in Ikeja Lagos by the Nigerian Police.
A statement by CDHR National President, Comrade Debo Adeniran, and National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Idris Olayinka, noted that the Police laid siege to the Rights House in the early hours of Friday.
They said the Police prevented occupants of the building from gaining entrance.
The statement further noted that the Police presence at the Rights House is to stop the Education Rights Campaign Symposium scheduled to hold at the main hall of the CDHR office.
“The police were seen with several Hilux vans laying siege to the CDHR National Headquarters Rights House, preventing the participants from holding the programme.
Besides, HURIWA recalled that in what is reminiscent of the late General SanibAbacha’s discredited military dictatorship, some heavily armed security operatives stormed the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headquarters (Labour House) in Abuja at approximately 8:30 PM on August 7, 2024, long after the workday had ended.
According to a statement made available by NLC’s Head of Media and Public Relations, Comrade Benson Upah, the Labour House was invaded by a mix of personnel from the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services (DSS), and unidentified operatives dressed in plain clothes.
“The security team, without presenting any legal documents, apprehended the security operative on duty and forced him to the building’s second floor.
Despite our security men’s responses to their questions about not having access to the office keys, the operatives proceeded to break into the premises and ransack the NLC’s bookshop.
They seized hundreds of books and other publications, alleging that they were searching for seditious materials related to the #EndBadGovernance protests.” The statement highlighted.
In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA criticized what it called a calculated and brazen violations of the fundamental human rights of citizens just as it stated that it was totally unconstitutional for security services to invade the offices of the NLC in the dead of the night without consideration for the requirements of the law by not showing any valid court permission for searching those offices belonging to the Labour movement in Nigeria.
HURIWA said the action of the police in Lagos to prevent the occupants of the Secretariat of the CDHR to gain access to their premises is not only illegal but deeply troubling.
“We are calling on the Federal Government not to take actions and steps that are tailored towards destabilisation of constitutional democracy. Heads of security forces must be subjected to the principles of accountability and responsibility to the due process of the law.”
