Civil rights activist, Dele Farotimi, has slammed the Nigeria Police and the judiciary over their roles in restricting citizens from holding peaceful protests, describing the actions as evidence that Nigeria is merely pretending to be a democracy.
Farotimi stated this on Tuesday in an interview on ‘The Morning Brief’, a programme on Channels Television monitored by DAILY POST.
He stated that in a true democracy, citizens do not require a police permit to protest, adding that the police are only to be informed so they can provide security.
“In a democracy, there should never be a need for a police permit before you may have a protest. The police were informed so that they would provide security.
“That a court would presume to curtail the right of citizens to protest peacefully in a democracy is even suggestive of the fact that we’re not in a democracy. We’re only mimicking and pretending to be in one,” he said.
His comment is coming following a protest by the #FreeNnamdiKanu protesters in Abuja on Monday.
It was reports that the protesters marched round the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, on Monday demanding the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
According to Farotimi, it is completely unheard of for citizens in a democracy to need the permission of their paid employees, the police, before they can congregate peacefully.
He maintained that the judiciary has become an extension of the executive and no longer serves the cause of justice.
“I’m sorry to say our judiciary is unfit for purpose. It does exactly as it is told by the executive and does not serve the cause of justice. An order is only as useful as its lawfulness,” he added.
The activist said citizens who protest peacefully should not be criminalised, emphasising that only violent offenders should face arrest, recounting his own experience with a non-existent law, which he said exposed the dysfunction in the Nigerian legal system.
Source: dailypost.ng
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