Let detained protesters go home
There is no reasonable ground for the Federal Government to continue detaining Nigerians in police or prison custody for participating in any protest, be it the #EndSARS event of October 2020, the #EndBadGovernance protests of August 2024 or any other.
Sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended), guarantee freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Participants in protests are asserting their rights to come together and make their grievances known to the public and especially government.
In the two extant instances, police brutality which dehumanised the ordinary citizen, and harsh economic policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration, imposed excruciating hardship, hunger and misery on majority of Nigerians. Protest is a constitutional, democratic and legitimate means of informing the authorities of the feelings of the same people on whose behalf elected and appointed officials wield power.
Even when the law enforcement agencies have reason to detain protesters, it should not be for longer than a few hours or days.
Just like its predecessor, the Tinubu government claims that the protesters were pushing for unconstitutional “regime change”. They point to messages on placards and the fact that in some areas of the North, protesters carried Russian flags, another way of inviting the military to seize power as in neighbouring Niger Republic.
Also, there were riots in the North whereby government property and private businesses were looted or razed.
The law enforcement agencies must professionally profile the detainees and separate protesters from vandals, rioters and alleged regime change agitators. It must also be borne in mind that many of the alleged regime change agitators were sponsored by some disgruntled members of the political elite. Many of the rioters were mere foot soldiers.
We want to see more of the sponsors of criminality in our society, such as terrorism, banditry, ethnic profiling and violent protests, in the dock. These are the real enemies of government and our country. Running after small fries while leaving the real culprits untouched is an act of cowardice.
It smacks of the antics of bullies. It also reinforces the feeling that these young people are being hounded to intimidate or cow the citizenry to give up their rights.
You cannot beat a child and tell him not to cry. President Tinubu, as an opposition leader, participated in protests against military and civilian regimes. He proudly glows in the self-acclamation of being a “democrat”. Before the coming of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to power in 2015, protesters never lasted more than a few hours in police detention, and media practitioners were never harassed since 1999.
We call for the unconditional release of all detained protesters. Only confirmed rioters and other lawbreakers need to face the law.
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