BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
Renowned lawyer and activist, Femi Falana, has asked the Nigerian Police to apologise to protesters of June 12, who they fired tear gas at and arrested, hence depriving them of their fundamental right to protest.
The human rights lawyer said despite the eventual release of the arrested protesters, the illegal action of the police was a violation of the protesters’ freedom of expression as the 1999 constitution provided.
Some protesters in major towns of the country were on the streets on Saturday to demonstrate against bad governance and poor living conditions in commemoration of the Democracy Day celebration.
“For having the audacity to insist on their fundamental right to protest against unpopular policies of governments, teams of armed police personnel fired teargas to disperse the peaceful rallies,” Falana said.
As if the unprovoked attack was not enough, the Police brutalised and arrested scores of protesters in Lagos, Abuja and Calabar.
“Since the protesters who were arrested during the peaceful rallies did not commit any offence, they have since regained their liberty. But the Police authorities ought to apologise for violating the fundamental right of the protesters to freedom of expression.
More so that the Police had deliberately contravened Section 83 (4) of the Police Establishment Act 2020 which provides that ‘Where a person or organization notifies the police of his or its intention to hold a public meeting, rally or procession on a public highway or such meetings in a place where the public has access to, the police officer responsible for the area where the meeting rally or procession will take place shall mobilize personnel to provide security cover for the meeting, rally or the procession,” he added.
Applauding the peaceful protesters for “conducting themselves in a peaceful manner,” he condemned “the official lie that the protesters were tear gassed to prevent hoodlums and miscreants from hijacking the peaceful rallies.”
He further queried: “Why were the scanty pro-government protesters who were reported to have fought openly in Abuja over their booty not arrested for breach of the peace in the Federal Capital Territory?”.
“The lessons of the unfortunate event of yesterday should be learnt by all sides of the debate on human freedom. The nation should henceforth be spared the periodic assaults on the civic space,” he included.
