Amnesty International on Wednesday said the Federal High Court in Abuja’s stringent bail conditions given to the 10 #EndBadGovernance protesters facing a trial for treason is a punitive with-hunt of dissenting voices.
Responding to bail conditions granted to the ten #EndBadGovernace protesters charged for treason, in a statement on Wednesday, Isa Sanusi, Director Amnesty International Nigeria said:, “Amnesty International observes with grave concern the Nigerian Authorities’ wanton weaponisation of stringent bail conditions to justify arbitrary detentions and to excessively restrict activists’ right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
“What the 10 #EndBadGovernance protesters are going through is part of a large-scale attempt by the government of President Bola Tinubu to demonize protests and protesters”, he said.
According to Sanusi, the ten #EndBadGovernance protesters and other protesters arbitrarily detained in various prisons across Nigeria for peacefully protesting corruption and deep poverty between 1-10 August should not have been detained in the first place.
Arraigning them for fabricated charges, he said, shows the government’s disregard for the right to peaceful protest and called for the immediate and unconditional release of all the #EndBadGovermance protesters held in custody.
The Amnesty International Nigeria Director said, “The Nigerian authorities must uphold their international human rights obligations by protecting and facilitating the right to peaceful assembly.
“The heavy-handed clampdown and witch-hunt of human rights defenders, journalists, whistleblowers and activists must end,” he said.
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