#EndBadGovernance: Unrelenting activists move against Abuja court restriction order on protesters
File: People protest against hardship on the street of Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. Thousands of mostly young people poured onto the streets across Nigeria on Thursday as they protested against the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse some of the protesters in the capital, Abuja. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
Activists and lawyers to the #EndBadGovernance protesters have asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to vacate the ex-parte order it made restricting the #Endbadgovernance and hunger protesters to the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja.
Recall that the trial judge, Justice Sylvanus Oriji had on July 31, confined the protesters to the National Stadium to prevent a breakdown of law and order, as well as the destruction of lives and property in the nation’s capital, during the protest.
The court on August 13, 2024, extended the order.
Challenging the order, Omoyele Sowore, Damilare Adenola, Adama Ukpabi for Takeitbackmovement and Tosin Harsogba of Active Citizen Group, argued that the court made the order without jurisdiction and in violation of the applicants’ fundamental rights.
According to them, through their counsel, Inibehe Effiong, the ex-parte order is a nullity and should be set aside.
In asking the court to set aside the ex-parte order, Effiong argued that the interim injunctive orders granted by this court are unconstitutional and ultra vires. According to him, ‘The said orders which restrained and restricted the protests called by 1 – 4 defendants/applicants to only Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja contravenes the sacred and cherished fundamental rights of the applicants to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association guaranteed by Sections 39 and 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) respectively.
He further argued that the duty of the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and other law enforcement agencies to provide adequate security to the applicants and other protesting Nigerian citizens was statutorily provided for in Section 83 (4) of the Nigeria Police Act 2020, Section 91 (3) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and other enabling laws.
Meanwhile, a human rights lawyer, Mr Deji Adeyanju, has condemned the arrest of a Kano-based journalist, Muktar Dahiru, by Kano State government over alleged defamation
He described the development as an attack on press freedom, saying it is an attempt to silence critics.
Dahiru was charged before Magistrate Court 24 at Gyadi Gyadi, Court Road, with criminal conspiracy, defamation of character, and intentional insult.
The state government said the alleged offences contravened sections 97,391 and 115 of the Penal Code.
