Protesters have stormed the Abuja
office of the Amnesty International (AI), an international human rights
organisation, and demanded its immediate exit from Nigeria.
The protesters arrived at the
office located at Maitama, at about 2pm on Friday, with various placards accusing
the organisation of “attempting to destabilise Nigeria.”
They also accused AI of being
sponsored by the opposition, claiming that the human rights group was taking
sides with “mischief makers”.
It was learnt most of the
protesters were drawn from internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps across the
federal capital territory, although this could not be confirmed.
“Most of them were IDPs; I even
recognised one from the camp along Abuja airport road,” an eyewitness said.
The protest comes two days after
AI had asked Nigerian authorities to respect the rights of campaigners of a
social media movement tagged ‘Revolution Now’.
The rights organisation had
tweeted: “Authorities must respect the rights of #RevolutionNow movement to
assemble and seek for freedom and just without fear or any intimidation.
Nigeria belongs to all of us.”
The statement did not go down
well with some Nigerians who accused the group of stepping beyond their
boundary.
A particular Twitter user wrote via
@mshelbwala: “Someone needs to call @AmnestyNigeria to order. A call for
revolution in Nigeria is beyond their mandate. It is subversive and we the
peace loving Nigerians will be out also to resist #RevolutionNow.”
2. Authorities must respect the rights of #RevolutionNow movement to assemble and seek for freedom and just without fear or any intimidation. Nigeria belongs to all of us.— Amnesty Int. Nigeria (@AmnestyNigeria) July 31, 2019
‘WE WILL NOT STAY SILENT’
Reacting via a statement, Isa
Sanusi, AI spokesman, said the group “will not stay silent” over the agitations
which he described as “sponsored protests.”
“Amnesty International is a human
rights organization and not affiliated to any interests, political, religious
or commercial. We have been working on Nigeria since 1967 – our role is to hold
governments to their obligations to respect and protect human rights, and to
ensure that anyone whose rights are violated has an effective remedy,” the
statement read.
“For this reason, the
organization continues to call on the Nigerian government to use its authority
and resources to investigate all allegations of human rights violations and
abuses, including of rape, torture, arbitrary detentions and unlawful killings,
to ensure reparation for the victims, to hold the perpetrators accountable, and
to ensure non-repetition of the violations.
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