- Warns of looming sanctions by international community
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Sunday criticized the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the increasing incidents of human rights abuses in Nigeria.
Atiku, in a statement released by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, expressed concern over the alarming rise in the arrest and detention of citizens, particularly journalists, by the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Police.
Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of turning State security agencies into tools for suppressing dissent, noting that citizens were being arrested in a manner reminiscent of a Gestapo State, often without their relatives’ knowledge.
He specifically pointed out that the Cyber Crime Prevention Act of 2015 is being misused as a means to abduct Nigerians.
According to Atiku: “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,” he added.
The former Vice President warned that unless Tinubu takes these human rights abuses seriously, Nigeria could face sanctions from the international community.