Protesters storm Amnesty office, ask group to vacate Nigeria – TheNigerialawyer

Protesters have stormed the Abuja office of the Amnesty
International (AI), an international human rights organisation, and
demanded its immediate exit from Nigeria.

The protesters arrived at the office located at Maitama, at
about 2pm on Friday, with various placards accusing the
organisation of “attempting to destabilise Nigeria.”

They also accused AI of being sponsored by the opposition,
claiming that the human rights group was taking sides with
“mischief makers”.

TheCable learnt most of the protesters were drawn from
internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps across the federal
capital territory, although this could not be confirmed.

“Most of them were IDPs; I even recognised one from the camp
along Abuja airport road,” an eyewitness told TheCable.

The protest comes two days after AI had asked Nigerian
authorities to respect the rights of campaigners of a social media
movement tagged ‘Revolution Now’.

The rights organisation had tweeted: “Authorities must respect
the rights of #RevolutionNow movement to assemble and seek for
freedom and just without fear or any intimidation. Nigeria belongs
to all of us.”

The statement did not go down well with some Nigerians who
accused the group of stepping beyond their boundary.

A particular Twitter user wrote via @mshelbwala: “Someone needs
to call @AmnestyNigeria to order. A call for revolution in Nigeria
is beyond their mandate. It is subversive and we the peace loving
Nigerians will be out also to resist #RevolutionNow.”

@amnesty^[1] , @amnestyusa^[2], @StateDept^[3], @PoliceNG^[4], @USEmbassyAbuja^[5]
Someone needs to call @AmnestyNigeria^[6] to order. A call for
revolution in Nigeria is beyond their mandate. It is subversive and
we the peace loving Nigerians will be out also to resist #RevolutionNow^[7].

— Mshelbwala1 (@mshelbwala) July 31,
2019^[8]

‘WE WILL NOT STAY SILENT’

Reacting via a statement, Isa Sanusi, AI spokesman, said the
group “will not stay silent” over the agitations which he described
as “sponsored protests.”

“Amnesty International is a human rights organization and not
affiliated to any interests, political, religious or commercial. We
have been working on Nigeria since 1967 – our role is to hold
governments to their obligations to respect and protect human
rights, and to ensure that anyone whose rights are violated has an
effective remedy,” the statement read.

“For this reason, the organization continues to call on the
Nigerian government to use its authority and resources to
investigate all allegations of human rights violations and abuses,
including of rape, torture, arbitrary detentions and unlawful
killings, to ensure reparation for the victims, to hold the
perpetrators accountable, and to ensure non-repetition of the
violations.

“Despite sponsored protests, we will not stay silent. In the
face of efforts to evade responsibility or to smear our
organization, we will continue to raise our voices whenever and
wherever we see injustice, sexual abuse, discrimination against
women, or any other violations of human rights in Nigeria.”

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