CITIZENS COMPASS—The female revolutionary leader, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin on Saturday, berated the Nigeria Police Force for re-arresting the former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress(AAC), Omoyele Sowore, after he was granted bail by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
She berated the Police in a statement titled, “Police Whisking of Omoyele Sowore from Magistrate Court, Abuja after Being Granted Bail : Unlawful, Undemocratic,”
According to her: Our attention has been drawn to the drama that the law enforcement agency, Nigeria Police Force staged at the Magistrate Court shortly after Comrade Omoyele Sowore was granted bail.
One would have expected that the Nigeria Correctional Service take custody of a defendant that fails to perfect his or her bail. But to our greatest surprise, the police usurped such constitutional responsibility of Correctional Service, it is the most irresponsible and unlawful act of a law enforcement agency.
We wish to assert that the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended), the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Nigeria is a signatory, guarantee the rights of everyone to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Democratic governance in Nigeria was birthed with the blood of innocent citizens and patriots, whose blood continues to seek for justice, deepening democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law.
We hereby call on the federal government to follow the rule of law and abide by the decisions of the court to release Sowore and other protesters that were arrested.
There is no democracy without the right of dissenting voices as protest is never a crime. There is a rise in human rights violations in Nigeria and this is antithetical to democratic governance.
