Outrage over alleged violation of rights in crackdown on protests

A national and international outcry has greeted the crackdown on Nigerians who are protesting against increases in tariffs for goods or products and services by the Federal Government.

International Press Centre (IPC) on Thursday condemned the unlawful arrest of four journalists, Ifeoluwa Adediran of Premium Times, Abiodun Ayeoba of Sahara Reporters, Awoniyi Oluwatosin of Objective Media and Daniel Tanimu of Galaxy Television as they covered a peaceful protest on the fuel price increase in Yaba, Lagos State.

Spokesperson for the organizers of the protest the Socialist Party of Nigeria Comrade Hassan Soweto, who was equally arrested, said: “The cameras and phones of the journalists were seized while they were taken to the Lagos State Police Command.”

IPC said it disapproves of the harassment and brutalization of the journalists in the course of legitimate duty and faulted the seizure and damage to their working tools.

It demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the journalists, saying the Police should also return the seized gadgets and pay compensation for the damaged ones.

The group insisted that the right to peaceful assembly and ventilation of grievances over government policies is covered by the laws of the federation and should not be tampered with arbitrarily.

Similarly, the Yoruba World Congress (YWC) condemned the arrest of one Opeyemi Owatimeyin by security agents, accusing them of keeping him in unlawful detention against the extant laws of the land.

According to a statement signed by YWC President Prof. Banji Akintoye on Thursday, Owatimeyin was seized by security agents at Iyara in Kogi State on 26th August, 2020 and has been in detention ever since.

The statement reads in part: “Efforts by his lawyers to secure his release according to law have been rebuffed.

This violates section 35 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, which guarantees the right to personal liberty.

A detaining or arresting authority is granted 24 hours of custody of Nigerians if courts are available within a radius of 40 kilometres or maximum of 48 hours in other situations.

Under the law, only a court of competent jurisdiction, upon due process, can authorize a longer period of detention of persons.

“To the best of our knowledge, this provision of the law has not been adhered to in the case of Owatimeyin.

Therefore, the continued detention of Owatimeyin violates the laws of the land and Nigeria, being a country under law, this flagrant breach of the law ought not be so. “This is not a banana republic and neither is it a dictatorship.

We portend to the world at large that we operate a democracy in which the fundamental human rights of every citizen must not only be recognized but also are respected and protected.

“The ‘sin’ of Owatimeyin, according to the reports at our disposal, is that he was allegedly distributing pamphlets extolling the virtues and necessity for a Yoruba nation or Oodua Republic.

“Again, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) guarantees the right to freedom of speech and of association to every citizen.”

The statement notes further: “The Charter of the United Nations which Nigeria ratified grants the right to self-determination.

Even President Muhammadu Buhari recognized this at the UN General Assembly of 2016. President Buhari was asked about the agitations of many Igbo Nigerians for a separate Biafra country.

He answered that if the agitators wanted to be taken seriously, they should establish a lawabiding organization to promote their demands peacefully, and that if they did that, the Nigerian state would have to listen to them and talk with them.

“A peaceful exercise of such rights as Owatimeyin allegedly was reported to have done does not constitute an offence known to law.

“For the records, prominent Nigerians in the chequered history of this country have been known to have advocated and continue to advocate for a course of action not different from what Owatimeyin was alleged to have done.

“Should anyone have a contrary opinion to Owatimeyin’s, they, too, should be free to express it.

And should anyone feel that Owatimeyin has breached any known law of the land, he should be charged to court where he will be able to exercise his inalienable right to self-defence.

We, therefore, demand Owatimeyin’s immediate and unconditional release from illegal and unlawful detention.” Meanwhile, some electricity consumers have described the new tariff as exploitative, claiming electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) were not adhering to the terms of the regime being implemented.

The customers made this known in an engagement with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on its official Twitter account.

The DisCos had announced the implementation of the new Service Reflective Tariff Plan (SRT) across their franchise areas from Sept. 1.

They said the classes of customers had been categorised into five bands, with bands D and E not enjoying 12 hours of power supply, and not affected by the new tariff plan.

The customers said the categorisation was shrouded in secrecy while power supply since the increment began has dropped drastically.

They also urged the DisCos to identify specific areas with their bands and send text messages to customers within those areas in order to stop the exploitation.

According to them, the real outrage will be felt when the huge number of unmetered customers receive their bills for September, because the DisCos had failed to implement the capping on estimated bills.

A customer, who simply identified himself as Captain, shared the electricity supply report for Sept. 8 under Ikeja Electric network, claiming that a total of six hours and thirty six minutes was supplied for the day.

“This is from the DisCo that increased my tariff from N24 to N56/unit on the basis of 16 hours a day supply of electricity,” he tweeted.

Bola, another customer, described the new electricity tariff hike as “nothing but pure wickedness. Over 100 per cent hike? I just bought Kilowatt I used to buy for N2, 000 for over N5, 000.

There is load shedding in my area (two days on and one day off) and there is no guarantee of 15 hours on the two days on.”

Also, Mr Olumide Adeniyi, said it was difficult to understand the operations of the DisCos.

He said in a tweet, “Before the introduction of the new tariff, power supply in my area was about 18 hours in a day.

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At present, we barely have it for four hours and the tariff has gone up. Ridiculous!” Also, Mr Ibrahim Bawa, under the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, said the tariff had been reviewed but the supply has not been improved.

I currently pay more than N50/ Kwh but get less than 10 hours. If DisCos cannot provide up to 12 hours then revert to old rates,” he said.

Responding, NERC thanked the customers for sharing their experiences, adding that it had communicated the complaints to all DisCos.

“We expect that you will see details shared with the public soon,” the regulatory agency said.