The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Wednesday, lambasted the presidency over its recent comment that End SARS promoters should be made to face the law.
HURIWA, a frontline Rights group said President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu was bereft of the working of Nigeria’s constitution.
Following the hijack of the End SARS protests, Shehu had said those behind the protest that led to looting would be made to face the law.
However, the right group said Shehu needs to return to school to understand the workings of the country’s constitution.
National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko said Shehu needs to understand that the constitution allows citizens to protest.
In a statement, Onwubiko said: “The Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu needs to return to a good School to learn lessons about the essence, import, significance and eternal values of constitutionalism and democracy, so he understands that peaceful protests by citizens against the misconduct of the members of the policing institution of Nigeria are lawful, constitutional.
“Shehu is bereft of deep knowledge of the workings of constitutional democracy which was why he told a television station those citizens who participated in the peaceful marches against police excessive deployment of force.
“For the avoidance of doubts, Garba Shehu needs to be told that democracy without peaceful protests is dead just as the Constitution in chapter 4 permits the citizens to demonstrate constructively against oppressive styles of governance.”
The rights group also criticised the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele for equating promoters of the End SARS protests against police brutality with terrorists.
HURIWA said Emefiele was a “puppet and a stooge of President Muhammadu Buhari” who is “tormented and terrorized by the truth.”
The rights group also rebuked the CBN governor for deviating from his core duties and statutory obligations.
The statement added: “CBN GOVERNOR through his ineptitude and crass incompetence has driven the value of the nation’s national currency to hover around the same vicinity of disgrace and ignominy with the worthless wheelbarrow Zimbabwean currency.”
