CDHR Condemns Governor Sanwo-Olu, Lagos CP For Abuse Of Rights To Peaceful Assembly

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Lagos State branch, has condemned the act of disobedience and abuse of constitutional provision on citizen rights to freedom of lawful assembly.

P.M.EXPRESS reports as disclosed by the Chairman of CDHR Lagos Chapter, Commrade Alex Omotehinse, in a statement.
He said that it has been widely announced and reported in the dailies since last week that there was going to be a peaceful assembly of the gathering of some youths and groups in 3 states within the Southwestern states in agitation for the Operation Amotekun Initiative – a new pronounced vigilante group in the South West states and venues were equally announced in every of the 3 South West states in which Lagos participants were to assemble at the popular Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park at Ojota.
The CDHR said that they were surprised to see that the Operation Amotekun Initiative protesters were not allowed into the  Gani Fawehinmi  Park,  as the Freedom Park was already occupied and barricaded by loaded and fully armed security personnel drawing from  the various Divisions and Area Commands of the  Lagos State Police Command, possibly with the instruction of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police through the order of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Meanwhile the same gathering of Operation Amotekun Initiative protest took place in other designated states in the South West; Oyo and Ekiti State.

According to the CDHR, the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression is a fundamental human right enshrined in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. The invasion of the lawful assembly of citizen to express themselves and make demands from government by both the State and Federal security agencies is an affront, unconstitutional, unacceptable and it remains a  condemnable act.
“Therefore we call on the leadership of the National Assembly to as a matter of urgency, rise and wake up from their slumber to stop being ‘Rubber Stamp Legislators’ and checkmate the present executive powers at both the State and Federal level before they truncate this our hard earned democracy” the CDHR concluded.