Sowore’s arrest systematic clampdown on opposition, says HURIWA

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned as unconstitutional and illegal the arrest of Omoyele Sowore, publisher of online platform- Saharareporters by the Department of State Services (DSS).

In a statement by the group, it described the arrest as a culmination of the systematic clampdown and organized brutish attacks targeting persons and groups with divergent opinion from the status quo.

While it demanded for the immediate release of Sowore, Huriwa accused the DSS of illegally bugging telephones of prominent civil rights leaders including leaders of HURIWA. .

The group which submitted that the fundamentals of the practice of constitutional democracy are animated by the protection and promotion of the basic constitutional freedoms of speech and the opening of the civic spaces, raised the alarm that since coming to office, President Muhammadu Buhari has adopted anti-democratic postures that constitute grave threats to constitutional democracy.

HURIWA stated that the report that the presidential candidate African Action Congress (AAC) Omoyele Sowore was arrested by Operatives of the Department of State Services to thwart the holding of nationwide protests against miss-governance and unprecedented insecurity shows that the current administration lacks the frame of mind to tolerate dissenting voices.

“Does anyone in this government benefit from these killings by all kinds of armed freelance killers and bandits so much so that the government is afraid of street protests to condemn these killings?”

According to the Rights group: “Why invade the residence of a citizen in the wee hours of the morning like thieves or kidnappers to whisk away a citizen? This is reminiscent of the dictatorial style if the diabolical military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha which is totally not in consonance with the principle and practice of constitutional democracy”.

HURIWA emphatically accused the DSS of seeking to destroy free speech because the act was made to frustrate the plan to stage series of planned civil protests just as the Rights group said this may be as a result of his (OMOWOLE SOWORE’S) plans to mobilise people in Lagos and many parts of the country for a revolution protest tagged ‘Days of Rage’ to demand a better Nigeria.

HURIWA observed too that since Sowore tweeted: ” DSS invades Sowore’s” and was subsequently not allowed to speak to his lawyer shows that the DSS is yet to come to terms with the fact that Nigeria has for 20 years practiced constitutional democracy with inbuilt provisions in chapter 4 for the protection of the fundamental freedoms of the citizenry including the right to a legal representation and a right to the dignity of his personhood as recognized by international and local human rights  laws.