Why law abiding citizens shouldn’t be harassed by a regime that negotiates with bandits, terrorists – Falana

Human Rights Lawyer, Mr Femi Falana has warned that law abiding Nigerians should not be harrassed by security operatives and law enforcement agents.
Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) made the call in reaction to the invasion of the secretariat of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and also the Civic Media Lab.

The legal practitioner in a communique on Wednesday said, the Nigeria Police Force invaded the secretariat of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and sealed off the place in Lagos.

He stressed that in spite of the fundamental rights of the Nigerian people to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, the police had wanted to ‘disrupt and stop’ the peaceful meeting of law-abiding citizens to discuss the illegal detention of Omoyele Sowore, Agba Jalingo, Abayomi Olawale and scores of others being incarcerated in various detention facilities in the country.

Stating his case further, Falana said that contrary to the order of the Federal High Court that Sowore should be detained for 45 days, the Department of State Services has incarcerated him for 47 days.

“Last week, the Federal High Court turned down the application for the renewal of its order for the detention of Agba Jalingo and Ekanem Ekpo for 14 days.

“In spite of the expiration of the detention order of the two journalists, they are being held by the police in Cross River State.
“Mr Abayomi Olawale, who was arrested on August 5, 2019, has been detained for 45 days by the DSS without any court order whatsoever.

“These detainees and scores of others languishing in illegal custody ought to be released forthwith,” Falana demanded.

While congratulating the organizers of the symposium for successfully holding the programme at another venue, Falana said that the harassment of law-abiding citizens cannot be tolerated under a regime which he claims is busy negotiating with bandits and terrorists, “bribing them with public funds and granting them amnesty”.