By Yusuf Mutiu-Olaitan
August 25th, 2024
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, ex vice president, has accused the president Tinubu’s led administration of abusing the rights of Nigerians.
This was revealed in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shuaibu, stating that Nigerians were being arrested without the knowledge of their people.
Atiku also stated that those experiencing the persecution are mostly journalists who have been reporting crimes in Tinubu’s administration.
He further said the Cyber Crime Prevention Act of 2015 is a tool to abduct and persecute Nigerians.
“The dangerous trend of enforced disappearances has become a national embarrassment for a country which claims to be practising democracy. On May 1, 2024, Daniel Ojukwu of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism went missing and was presumed abducted by kidnappers until he was later discovered to be in police custody on the orders of IGP Kayode Egbetokun.
“Ojukwu’s crime was that he exposed the corruption of a government official who currently serves in Tinubu’s administration. On July 23, the DSS arrested one Aliyu Sanusi in Sama Road of Sokoto, the state capital for printing and distributing materials ahead of the #EndBadGovernanceProtest. Even the arrest and release of the former BBC Pidgin Editor and current West Africa Regional Editor of the Conversation, Adejuwon Soyinka, clearly shows a pattern, whose objective is to intimidate journalists for speaking the truth to this government.
“Now, the police have arrested Bristol Tamunobiefiri, who owns the PIDOM Nigeria blog on X, formerly Twitter. After detaining him for over two weeks, he was granted an administrative bail, which would be impossible to meet. This is despite the fact that the Appeal Court, in the case of EFCC V. Emem Uboh (2022) LPEIR – 57968 (CA) held that administrative bail is illegal. Bristol should, therefore, be arraigned in court immediately or released.” the statement concluded.