[Press Release] Civil Rights advocacy Group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)- has strongly condemned the alleged abduction, inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention in dehumanising situations of a human rights campaigner who is also a Nurse: Miss. Olamide Thomas.
The Rights group said this sort of gestapo and absolute illegality by the Nigeria Police Force had continued to attract global opprobrium and spectacular image quagmire for the policing institution in Nigeria.
Besides, HURIWA wondered why the police in Nigeria has made no institutional efforts to clean up her house and mainstream the respect of the human rights of citizens in the discharge of their policing duty even at a time that the police is being accused by the Conservative party leader in Great Britain Kemi Badenoch.
HURIWA recalled that Miss. Olamide Thomas, a nurse and activist who was arrested and detained by the police in Lagos for criticising Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector-General of Police, and President Bola Tinubu, has been transferred to Abuja.
The activist is reportedly being held at the Federal Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Take it Back Movement, a non-governmental organisation that fights against oppression, announced this on Saturday night on X (formerly Twitter).
“Nurse Olamide has just been transported by the illegally constituted Nigeria Police Force Courier Service to Murtala Mohammed Airport en route to Abuja to face an illegal trial sponsored by President Tinubu through PPRO, Muyiwa Adejobi, and the IGP.
“Human rights activist Olamide Thomas, abducted by Nigerian police, is now unlawfully flown to FCID Abuja! We condemn this blatant disregard for human rights & demand her IMMEDIATE RELEASE!” the NGO wrote.
Thomas was arrested on Friday morning by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Somolu, a suburb of Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, Lagos, and then detained at the Panti police station in the state and the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja before she was flown to Abuja on Saturday.
Reacting to what it calls treacherous and criminal approach to policing, the Rights group carpeted the manner the police has taken the law into her hands, adopted a kangaroo and a totally abhorrent procedural methods to haunt and hunt the Nigerian citizen by name Miss. OLAMIDE THOMAS who is a Nurse and a human rights activist just for criticising the Inspector-General of Police Mr. Kayode Egbetokun.
HURIWA asked thus: “Is the IGP Egbetokun now a DEITY that common mortals like members of the organised civil rights community can’t critique or questioned? By the way, if any citizen criticises the head of the police whose uniform and salaries are paid by the tax payers, should the policing institutional platform, resources and manpower be converted to the ‘housemaids’ or servants of the holder of the office of IGP temporarily?
“What has happened to civility and the methodology of the IGP suing the lady in the court of law for alleged defamation if that is the grouse of the IGP instead of the head of the police converting the entire mechanism of policing into his personal project? This is an attitude found in failed states and the President must immediately call the NPF and the IGP to order and order the immediate release of Nurse Olamide Thomas from the ‘unconstitutional imprisonment and active hostage’ and illegal incarceration of the police.
“If the IGP has a personal score to settle with the lady, let him go to court instead of resorting to self- help measures which is unconstitutional and antithetical to the essence of the observance of the human rights provisions enshrined in CHAPTER 4 OF THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION, THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT OF CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS.
HURIWA is asking civil rights organizations to protest publicly if Olamide Thomas isn’t freed immediately or charged to the competent court of law and granted fair hearing in accordance with section 36(5) of the 1999 constitution. THE POLICE CAN NOT BE THE ACCUSER, THE JURY AND THE JAILER IN THE CASE OF IGP AGAINST OLAMIDE THOMAS.
Signed
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). DECEMBER 15TH 2024.
Stay ahead with the latest updates! Join The ConclaveNG on WhatsApp and Telegram for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
- has strongly condemned the alleged abduction, inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention in dehumanising situations of a human rights campaigner who is also a Nurse: Miss. Olamide Thomas.){kind=link}