The decision of the iconic Musician Mr Innocent Tuface Idibia to call off
his version of the proposed nationwide February 6th public protests
against bad governance due to entrenched police harassment and threats to
use violent force to quell the otherwise peaceful marches shows that
Nigeria under the current dispensation of Muhammadu Buhari is in a police
state.
In a statement to the Media jointly issued by the National Coordinator
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss.
ZAINAB Yusuf, a civil rights group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF
NIGERIA (HURIWA) said the Nigeria Police which has long showed itself as
a willing tool in the hands of oppressive dictatorships has now succeeded
in driving dissenting voices underground which will inevitably result in
possible violent revolution given the excruciating economic situation
faced by millions of Nigerians.
“In all of these shenanigans that were played out by the different levels
of the Police force culminating in the issuance of a written threat from
the office of the Inspector General of Police warning Tuface and other
Nigerians not to demonstrate on February 6th or risked been killed, the
greatest victim is the current government. The international standing of
this government has nosedived and it is now officially a police state.
One thing is sure the collective will of the greatest percentage of the
suffering masses will explore other undesirable avenues to voice their
angst against the evil policies of this administration which have
impoverished millions of Nigerians. You can’t beat up a child and stop him
from wailing”.
HURIWA said it was shameful that President Muhammadu Buhari who as a
member of the political opposition for over a decade benefitted from
public demonstrations has now become an obstacle to the exercise
peacefully of the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech or
peaceful assembly.
“How can Muhammadu Buhari whose party as at 2007 (ANPP) alongside like
minded parties went to court of competent jurisdictions to challenge and
successfully scored victory for Nigerians by voiding the draconian
military/colonial era public order Act now turn back to employ crude
police tactics to stop Nigerians from exercising their constitutional
rights to freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly? This is the ninth
wonder of the World. Democracy is about to be slaughtered on the alter of
selfish POLITICAL gambit”.
Expressing disappointment that the Musician Mr. Innocent Tuface Idibia
for fear of arrest has had to call off his version of the planned
peaceful mass rallies the Rights group affirmed that the other groups who
may still desire to proceed with the public rallies may do so even as the
Rights group has called on members of the international community to
monitor the activities of the Nigerian police to stop them from illegally
deploying brute force against unarmed demonstrators as has been done by
the police and other security forces in the recent times when they killed
over 200 unarmed members of the indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB).
“We want to let the Inspector General of Police to note that his
dictatorial and unconstitutional decision to brandish unsubstantiated
security reports of possible breach of peace as the fake and contrived
weapon to harass organisers of civil protests will succeed in driving
voices of opposition underground which will inevitably make them deploy
other revolutionary tactics which will foist a situation of anarchy and
chaos in the public space of Nigeria. Those who make peaceful changes
impossible are simply creating rooms for violent revolutions. The people
of Nigeria won’t be cowed into absolute enslavement endlessly. Soon the
suffering masses will wake up from government’s propaganda induced
slumber and viciously explore other undesirable but strategic avenues to
voice their angst against the evil policies of this administration which
have impoverished millions of Nigerians.”
Besides, HURIWA said by the action of using threats of deployment of
police brutality to stop the proppsed national peaceful rallies the police
has further alienated herself from the people and will never win the trust
and confidence of the mass of rational Nigerians who will henceforth view
them as public enemies number one. The group therefore warned that social
crimes and other violent attacks may increase and that people will no
longer cooperate with a policing institution that is ABSOLUTELY
ANTI-PEOPLE”.