The defiant global rights group some suspected sponsored demonstrators last week demanded its exit from Nigeria, Amnesty International, has alleged that three Shi’ites have died in Police custody.
According to the rights group, the police are also holding some minors among other members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) incommunicado.
The damning allegations from Amnesty International came as some 60 protesters are also alleged to have so far been arrested in the #RevolutionNow protest across the country.
Counsel to the detained Omoyele Sowore, the lead organiser of the protest, Inibehe Effiong, who made this known said the figure includes journalists already reported to have been arrested by security agencies at various venues of the protests on Monday.
Effiong, a constitutional lawyer/human rights activist however, denied the allegations by the Nigerian government that the protest was planned to overthrow the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. President Buhari had argued that a revolution was inherently violent and treasonous.
Some of the states where protesters were allegedly arrested include Lagos, Cross River, Ondo and Ogun. A news portal, Premium Times reported the arrest of the Lagos protesters after they were dispersed with teargas by heavily-armed security operatives. Many journalists were also manhandled in the process.
In Ondo, a journalist and a protester were arrested. The journalist was released hours later after he had been assaulted by the security operatives, and in Osun, seven protesters were arrested by security operatives.
The protesters were arrested in front of the Nigeria Union Of Journalists (NUJ) Correspondents’ Chapel in Osogbo, the Osun state capital. Amongst those arrested were four students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and three others.
This news platform had earlier reported that in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, three journalists who went to cover the aborted protest were arrested by the police. The police in the state is said to be accusing two editors of CrossRiver Watch of being members of the RevolutionNow movement.
In the mean time, both the dead and the detained Shi’ites were allegedly arrested during the protest by the IMN in Abuja for the release of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, his wife, and other members of the Islamic sect..
In a statement on Tuesday, the IMN called on the Nigerian authorities to immediately investigate the deaths from gunshot wounds of the Shi’ites while in police custody, and provide urgent and adequate medical care to 15 others who allegedly need treatment for life-threatening gunshot wounds.
Amnesty International however, said the 15 individuals, including two minors, have been held incommunicado at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) detention facility since July 22, alleging further that the three Shi’ites died after being denied medical treatment for their injuries.
Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Osai Ojigho, said: ‘’We have information confirming that three protesters died of gunshot wounds at a detention facility in Abuja after being denied medical treatment. Their deaths while in police custody sends a chilling message about the authorities use of lethal force to stifle dissent and their contempt for people’s right to access medical care.
‘’The protesters who are being held at the SARS detention facility are in critical condition and need immediate access to medical care. Any denial of such access is a violation of their human rights. The Nigerian authorities must not allow more people to die in police custody before they act.’’
Witnesses allegedly told the rights group that a team of armed policemen in two Hilux vehicles arrived at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada at about 5:30pm on July 22 and rounded up 11 patients with gunshot wounds, most of them IMN members who were brought to the hospital earlier in the day.
Amnesty International says a credible source told them that he saw at least 15 protesters with various life-threatening gunshot wounds to their legs, stomach and hips, some of them unable to walk, in detention. Among the injured detainees are two minors and two women held in the same cell.
Last week, the video of 17-year-old Ummul Kulsum, a student from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, and Fatima Ibrahim Dasuki emerged as they lay in front of a government building bleeding from gunshot injuries sustained during the July 22 protest.
According to Ojigho, ‘’there can be no justification whatsoever for firing live ammunitions against peaceful protesters, nor for imprisoning them for merely exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
‘’The Nigeria Police must immediately and unconditionally release all detained IMN members who have not been charged with a recognisable offence and brought before a competent civilian judicial authority. The Nigerian government must promptly investigate in an independent and impartial manner the deaths of the three detainees in police custody and bring to justice those suspected of wrongdoing.’’
The global rights group is also calling for an independent and impartial inquiry into the July 22 protest, especially the killing of 11 protesters, Deputy Commissioner of Police Usman Umar and Channels TV reporter, Precious Owolabi, insisting that only an independent investigation can determine those responsible for the violence and avoidable deaths that occurred and allow for prosecution of those responsible in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.
Amnesty International is alleging that it requested to visit the detainees to verify the current condition of their detention but the police are yet to grant this request.
