Stop attacks on democratic rights
Press Statement
The Campaign for Democratic
and Workers Rights (CDWR) demands immediate end to the savage attacks on
democratic rights of Citizens Abdulmalik Saidu and Fejiro Oliver. The former is
currently languishing in detention for posting comments on the Facebook, which
purportedly "insults" the person of Kastina State Governor, Ibrahim
Shema. The latter is a journalist who is in the custody of the Directorate of
State Security (DSS) for reports purportedly "malign" the person of
the Niger State Governor, Alhaji Muhammed Aliyu.
According to media reports,
the health of Abdulmalik Sa'idu, the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)
student who was indefinitely detained on the orders of Kastina State Governor,
Ibrahim Shema has deteriorated after being kept in a “dingy solitary cell.”
Media reports confirm that Abdulmalik was arrested and detained at the
Batagarawa Police Station after he received a call on August 28 instructing him
to come to the government house for a message. On getting to the government
house, he was promptly arrested, handcuffed and taken to Batagarawa Police
Station just outside the state capital, Katsina, and detained on the orders of
Mr. Shema’s aide-de-camp, Shehu Koko, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP.
It is in the same breath of
breach of democratic rights that the DSS Niger State Command paraded Mr. Tega
Sampson Oghenedoro (aka Fejiro Oliver) for allegedly blackmailing the Niger
state government and others.
Fejiro Oliver was invited by
the Secretary to State Government (SSG) Niger state and was subsequently
arrested by the SSS on September 19, at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport
Abuja via Asaba Airport.
According to media reports
Sampson was arrested because he was in possession of a document on corrupt
practices against Niger state government over accessed funds from the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and had wanted to confirm from the government before
going to press.
We demand the immediate
release of these two ordinary Nigerians as well as adequate compensation for
their unlawful detention. However, this incident has further underscored the
need for trade unions and working people organizations to step up the fight for
democratic rights as well as working towards a mass working peoples’ political
alternative against the anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist government at all
levels.
Chinedu Bosah
Publicity Secretary
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