Highlights
[keypoints]
- Coalition demands Enugu State government to release the Administrative Panel of Inquiry on the #EndSARS report
- Wants the government to pay the seized salaries, allowances and benefits of 14 former legislators
- Ask people to vote according to their conscience and stay behind to endure that their votes are counted and results announced
[/keypoints]
Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, has been requested to be released from detention by a coalition of civil society, labour unions, and human rights advocates.
The coalition encouraged the Federal Government to engage those detainees in productive dialogue rather than using force and arms, as it did on Thursday during the unveiling of its South-East headquarters in Enugu.
The Convener of the Coalition and President, International Solidarity for Peace and Human Rights Initiative, Comrade Osmond Ugwu, spoke to journalists shortly after showing them around the organisation’s offices and bemoaned the impunity with which the government and security forces violated human rights in Nigeria, with a focus on the South-East region.
Comrade Chukwudi Aniachuna, the Coalition’s secretary, and other leaders stood by his side while Ugwu claimed that rather than reducing, human rights abuses in Nigeria have dramatically escalated as a result of the #EndSARS movement.
However, the coalition demanded that the Enugu State government release the Administrative Panel of Inquiry on the #EndSARS report and fully execute the National Economic Council’s advice about the #EndSARS protests and the reduction of police brutality in Nigeria.
“We once again wish to use this opportunity to call on Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and his government to revisit the document we presented to him in November 2021 on about 16 fundamental issues affecting the people, workers and retired public servants in the state; the issues of impunity in the system and acting on the report of the representative of Civil Society in EndSARS-related Judicial Panel on Police Brutality and Other Related Extra-Judicial Killings,” he said.
“He should make public the report of Administrative Panel on EndSARS, as well as full implementation of recommendation of National Economic Council as regards to EndSARS protests and mitigation of police brutality in Nigeria.
“We want the government to pay the seized salaries, allowances and benefits of 14 former legislators of the state House of Assembly that were unjustly seized by former governor of Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, during his regime, because of their opposition to his unjust policies during his regime.
“We want the governor to stop the abuse of fundamental human rights of residents of Enugu State through the unjustified hardship he imposed on the poor that do not have vehicles as a result of the ban on movement of Keke and commercial vehicles from 9 pm in the state capital among others,” the group said.
In regards to the general election in 2023, the coalition Civil Society asked Nigerians to make sure they not only received their Permanent Voter Cards but also actively participated in the voting process.
“We appreciate the interest being exhibited by the electorates this time in trying to get their PVC and urge every person of voting age to ensure that he or she gets a PVC, ensure they vote during elections, resist monitory inducement and intimidation during elections.
“They should also make sure that they vote according to their conscience and stay behind to endure that their votes are counted and results announced.
“We also call on the Nigerians to rise up to the challenges of ending electoral manipulations and merchandising of elective offices by politicians and exclusion of credible persons from contesting elective offices through the high cost of expression of interest forms,” Ugwu continued.
