Four people were arrested for attempting to dump nine coffins at the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior in Abuja on Wednesday.
The security operatives, who were alerted in advance of the plan by some youths under the aegis of the Concerned Nigerian Unemployed Youths, also foiled attempts by angry youths to demonstrate at the ministry and the official residence of the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, in Abuja.
It was learnt that the four leaders of the angry youths were picked up when they allegedly defied security instruction to leave the area.
It was further learnt that the driver of a Pickup van, who was hired to drop the coffins at the ministry, escaped when the four leaders were arrested.
Two of the youths arrested were political blogger, Japheth Omojuwa and another activist, Uche Briggs.
Meanwhile, an outrage followed the arrest of the protesters on Wednesday as many Nigerians said the clampdown on protesters amounted to a breach on constitutionally guaranteed freedom of peaceful protest.
A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, while demanding the immediate release of the arrested persons, described their arrest as an attempt to gag the citizens from exercising their rights to peaceful protest.
“Learning to bear the pain of citizens’ protest is the hallmark of democratic maturity. Our government must learn this. You can’t gag citizens. I expect that officials of the Department of State Services have acute sense of how angry citizens are, about the immigration tragedy, and so will nip anything that fuels it more!” she wrote on her Twitter page.
Also, ex-minister of the Federal Capital Territory and Aviation, Nasir el-Rufai and Femi Fani-Kayode, also flayed the arrest of the protesters on Twitter.
“I call on the government to release Omojuwa. He is one of the most forthright voices in the land and he cannot be silenced,” Fani-Kayode said.
Thousands of Nigerians on social media used the #FreeOmojuwa hash-tag to campaign for the release of the protesters
Omojuwa later took to his twitter page to break the news of their release later yesterday night, and thank Nigerians for their support.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
PDP is people government, in fact this is the best government ever in Nigeria. The death of those ones means nothing. it is an act of Allah. Up PDP Up GEJ Up Nigeria. In fact everything is going on well in Nigeria. Go on my presidents and his ministers go on.
ReplyDeleteDapo
Omojuwa is a fool. Denigrating Gani Fawehinmi's achievements is a sacrilege that can never be forgiven. They should have jailed him.
ReplyDelete