How attack on Amnesty Int’l stirred Nigerian CSOs

Following the attack on the Abuja office of Amnesty International (AI), many civil society organisations condemned the action as an affront on the country’s democracy. Protesters on Monday, March 20, barricaded the Abuja office of Amnesty International and asked it to quit Nigeria within 24 hours over the organisation’s recent report indicting the military and […]

Following the attack on the Abuja office of Amnesty International (AI), many civil society organisations condemned the action as an affront on the country’s democracy.

Protesters on Monday, March 20, barricaded the Abuja office of Amnesty International and asked it to quit Nigeria within 24 hours over the organisation’s recent report indicting the military and other law enforcement agencies of human rights abuses.

The groups believed the attack was not unconnected to the 2016/2017 Amnesty Report which accused the country’s security forces of “serious human rights violations including extra-judicial executions and enforced disappearances.”

The report alleged arbitrary arrests and detentions, suppression of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, unlawful killings among others.

 

The Nigerian Army, which rejected the position of Amnesty International, however set up an investigation committee to examine the claims. 

 

Several CSOs such as: Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP); Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE); Accountability Maternal New-born and Child Health in Nigeria (AMHiN); African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, and Centre for Advance Social Sciences (CASS) called on both President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo to promptly investigate the apparently sponsored and coordinated attacks

Other civil societies that condemned the attack are: Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD); Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC); Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civil Education (CHRICED).

SERAP’s deputy director, Timothy Adewale in a statement said: “Any failure to hold to account those who may be responsible will invariably increase the vulnerability of civil society in the country, and strengthen the perception that attacks against NGOs and human rights workers can happen with impunity.”

Also, the Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), through its executive director, Sylvester Uhaa, asked the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to urgently arrest and prosecute those involved in the act to serve as deterrent to “who may be contemplating such unlawful attacks on other international and local civil societies in the country.

“While the group that carried out the attack and their sponsors may not agree with the report, they are bound by law not to resort to illegal and unlawful means to show their disagreement.

“What happened to AI can happen to any other human rights group. CURE-Nigeria considers the attack on Al’s office and its staff an attack on civil society, freedom of expression and other basic tenets of democracy,” Uhaa added.

AMHiN called for non-violation of human rights in Nigeria, adding “If Amnesty International is given the boot, as some are clamouring, it would mean anyone can sponsor certain people to protest against a civil society organisation that steps on its toes or that is bold to declare the truth it has uncovered.”

In a statement by its Executive Chairman, Debo Adeniran, CACOL while  condemning the attack urged the federal government not only to immediately and publicly dissociate itself from the attack but to ensure that AI continues its work in Nigeria so long as the organization violates no laws.

The centre expressed concern that any civil society organization could think of attacking such a popular global organization.

He said the “incidence is totally embarrassing and unacceptable. It is a move that indicates a slide back to the dark days of the military when human rights organizations and activists were hounded into exile or driven ‘underground’.”

He added that the “protest is spurious and evidently sponsored for reasons best known to the sponsors.

“Before this occurrence, it was already being peddled that the government was not comfortable with some of AI’s reports on Nigeria with regard to the protection of human rights of Nigerians particularly in parts of the country where there have been violent conflicts between the security agencies and militants or insurgents. So this attack would definitely portrays our country as a human rights unfriendly one”, Adeniran said.