Press Release 08-12-2002 14:30 pm GMT
New wave of repression of human rights activists in Nigeria:

"CREDO condemns restrictions and manhunts; calls for oversight of security agencies and urgent declassification of security reports held over from military era."

In the past week, the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) has prevented several well known human rights activists and members of Nigeria's civil society from travelling out of the country. Others have been declared wanted or invited for interrogation. Some of the victims of this recent wave of restrictions and repression include:

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, Secretary-General of the Global Pan-African Movement, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), and Director of Justice Africa. His passport and travel documents were confiscated by the SSS at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos on Wednesday 4 December 2002. He was on his way to London;

*Jiti Ogunye, Secretary-General, National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADL). His passport was similarly confiscated on Wednesday 4 December 2002 at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport. He was travelling to an international conference in Warsaw;

* Ms Iheoma Obibi, Executive Director, Alliances for Africa (AfA), and her child, Dilim Odinkalu, were similarly stopped and their non-Nigerian passports and travel documents confiscated. Ms Obibi who is pregnant was travelling to London for a medical appointment;

* Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Executive Director of Women's Aid Collective (WACOL), has reportedly been declared wanted by the SSS. She is also interdicted from travelling outside Nigeria through a gazetted point of exit.

* Isioma Ojugbana and Ijeoma Nwachukwu, both Programme Officers with the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), have reportedly been declared wanted by the SSS for investigating and authoring a report on the extra-judicial executions perpetrated by the Nigerian Armed Forces in Benue State in 2001.

This new wave of repression of Nigeria's civil society is believed to be authorised by the highest levels of Nigeria's political and military establishment. Under Nigeria's National Security Agencies Decree (Now Act No. 278, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990), Nigeria's SSS is headed by a Director-General who reports directly to the President. There is no ministerial or parliamentary oversight of its activities. The Decree, which expressly also precludes judicial supervision of the SSS, is preserved by Section 315(5)(c) of Nigeria's 1999 Constitution. In other words, President Olusegun Obasanjo is directly responsible for the activities of the SSS.

The pattern of recent victimisation closely resembles similar violations by Nigeria's past military regimes and suggests that these measures are based on records and bureaucratic methods held over from the military era. In June 1999, the elected government of General Olusegun Obasanjo established a Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) to investigate gross violations of human rights by successive military regimes in Nigeria between 1966-1999. In submitting its report earlier this year, the Commission declined calls by human rights organisations to recommend the declassification of military-era "security" files. The failure to declassify information held by the military era security agencies is now believed to be the basis of the continued and unwarranted harassment of pro democracy and human rights organisations and activists and persons associated with them.

Reacting to the restrictions and repression, CREDO’s Coordinator Rotimi Sankore stated “a government that claims electoral legitimacy cannot continue to rely on dubious security records to harass human rights activists or organisations. The government is obliged under Nigeria's Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights to lift the restrictions immediately, and declassify the records held over from the military era against law abiding persons. There must also be parliamentary oversight of the activities of these agencies in order to institute accountability.”

ENDS

For further information, contact our International Office:

Centre for Research Education & Development Of
- [CREDO]- Freedom of Expression & Associated Rights.

73-75 Newington Causeway
London SE1 6BD, UK

Tel: + 44 20 77875501
Fax:+ 44 20 77875502

E-mail: Media – [email protected] , General – [email protected]

CREDO is an International human rights organisation based in Senegal and London and focusing on work in Africa. CREDO believes that freedom of expression and other strongly associated rights, are major platforms on which all civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights stand. CREDO further believes that “without distinction of any kind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” everyone is entitled to these rights as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, The African Charter on Peoples and Human Rights and other similar documents.

While freedom of expression remains an inalienable right, it is often overlooked that it is in reality, not a stand alone right but is also a ‘gateway’ right to these other strongly associated rights, which are no less important and demand equal attention. These rights include the rights to opinion, assembly, association and so forth. An attack on any of these rights, is more often than not an indicator that other associated rights are not fully assured.

Collectively these rights are infinitely more important than they are individually. Their intertwined nature means that they are best defended and promoted collectively and not in isolation from each other.

While maintaining an international perspective, CREDO’s work focuses on themes in Africa related to: freedom of expression, media freedom, rights/access to information and information resources; freedom of opinion, association, assembly and related rights; and anti-discrimination issues e.g. discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, political persuasion etc.