Group Carpets Police Over #BBOG Protest Blockade, Says Unconstitutional

A pro-democracy and good governance advocacy group, Make A Difference (MAD), Initiative has carpeted the police in Abuja for forming a human barricade to prevent the members of the Bring Back Our Girls (#BBOG) from marching to the Presidential Villa from the Unity Fountain in Abuja on Tuesday.

MAD described the blockade as against the free assembly and movement of the BBOG group, describing it as unconstitutional and an affront to democratic governance.

In a statement issued by the Executive Director of the initiative, Mr. Lemmy Ughegbe and director of operations, Mr. Babawale Okunola, the initiative said it was disappointed at the fact that the police leadership was “ignorant of the law not to know that their reprehensible action amounted to arresting and detaining responsible Nigerians on an interventionist movement.”

“The Make A Difference Initiative is aghast at the level of ignorance of the law displayed by the police leadership in denying that they arrested and or detained members of the BBOG. To have a police leadership so ignorant of the law is appalling and cannot and does not inspire confidence in the Nigerian citizenry”, the statement read.

The initiative declared that “the human barricade formed against the co-convener of BBOG, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, and other members of the group by the police officers around the Unity Fountain amounted to their arrest and detention?

The duo said “arrest is not limited to the confines of a police station or cell. Any effort that denies a citizen the enjoyment of his constitutionally defined and guaranteed right to freedom, of movement amounts to arrest and detention.

“In any case, under a democracy, it is wrong to breach their constitutional rights to assembly and movement. The initiative condemns the police for their unconstitutional rights and urges all well-meaning Nigerians to do same as to discourage such acts by the police in future”.

The initiative urged Nigerians to be vigilant, fearless and outspoken against undemocratic and dictatorial tendencies, warning against the consequence of allow such tendencies to fester.