Ban on protests in Abuja is illegal

  Mr Mbu claimed that the FCT police command had received information that the demonstrations were posing security threats to residents. As in his previous and contentious command posting in Rivers State, Mr Mbu gave no clarification of what the threats were or where they might come from.Citing only the recent bombing in an area […]

  Mr Mbu claimed that the FCT police command had received information that the demonstrations were posing security threats to residents. As in his previous and contentious command posting in Rivers State, Mr Mbu gave no clarification of what the threats were or where they might come from.
Citing only the recent bombing in an area of Mubi, in Adamawa State, where a number of killed were killed by persons that the authorities are yet to identify, Mr Mbu said. “We are all aware of what happened in Mubi, Adamawa State, and as FCT police boss, I cannot fold my hands and watch this lawlessness. Information reaching us is that too soon dangerous elements will join the groups under the guise of protest and detonate explosives aimed at embarrassing the government”.
The commissioner also noted that some police officers did not properly handle a previous protest demonstration by the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls movement last week. For their ‘sins of omission’, Mr Mbu announced that the police officers, including all thirty two divisional heads (DPOs), had been removed from their posts as a disciplinary measure.
Again, as he did on several occasions in Rivers State, Mr Mbu has overstepped his bounds. The police have no legal right to unilaterally impose a ban on peaceful processions when the Federal Capital Territory is not under martial law or any form of security emergency to warrant the sweeping measures he claimed.
It may be that Mr Mbu has obtained political cover for his illegal action; that does not make it acceptable either.
The government, particularly the Presidency, has interests in seeing an end to the daily protests that open every day in Abuja and around the country-and practically every major town in the world-as a means of putting pressure on the government, not only to convince its top officials that the Chibok girls’ abduction is not a ruse, but also to take active part in the ongoing efforts to rescue them.
Such protests that have gathered global momentum appeared to have embarrassed and shaken the government out of its lethargic response; still the action it has take so has been haphazard and half-hearted.
Indeed, with the President Goodluck Jonathan’s tacit blessings, a rival #ReleaseOurGirls was launched in Abuja to muffle the message of the globally-acknowledged one. This was when the activists in the #BringBackOurGirls movement in Abuja, frustrated by the pushback by government officials who tried to discredit them by branding them as members of the opposition, decided to take their message to the Presidential Villa itself.
Mr Mbu mobilised thousands of police personnel to head them off at the Eagle Square before they could get on their way. But the president sent his own message to them through a couple of his ministers. In effect, Jonathan told them that they were in the wrong place. The activists should direct their anger the girls’ Boko Haram abductors and not to his government, he told them. It was a tellingly point blank acceptance that the administration had failed in its basic duty to provide security for its citizens.
That unfortunate admission tracks the dominant view being expressed in most of the world’s capitals that the government is in fact not doing much to provide direction and balance as the nation gropes for answers for what has become a terrible tragedy, which may yet get worse.
Flowing from the aborted march on Aso Rock, some people that reports identified as thugs in the government-sanctioned #ReleaseOurGirls attacked the activists of the original movement, injuring many of them. It was indication that the government has had enough and was moving to squelch any further expression of displeasure at its own tardiness and failings.
The purported ban also affects the government group, but it has no credibility; the target is #BringBackOurGirls. If Mr Mbu felt that the government’s body language was indication enough for him to announce his ‘ban’, he is mistaken. His superiors who must be wary of the implications of Mr Mbu’s action should not hesitate to clarify the situation, call him to order and reassure the people of their right to peaceful assembly and free speech under this democratic dispensation.