TAKE IT BACK MOVEMENT – OYO STATE
The Oyo state TIB has observed keenly, the lackadaisical nature of the Oyo state’s department of state prosecution (DPP) in handling cases involving the common masses.
It is much worse to know that most of these attitudes have cost enormous number of victims and their families both psychological and material losses.
We have it on authority how cases in the state suffer little or no attention, and transfers from one office, hand or court to the other without any meaningful result. Worth mentioning among series of such cases, is the embattled case of the #FreeOyo11 #EndSARS protesters arrested since over a year now by the Seyi Makinde government on unproven grounds. These individuals, with one of them dying in the cause, have suffered detention in the worst of the Oyo state prisons without any diligent prosecution.
We condemn this ineffective discharge of duties by both the DPP and ministry of justice of the state. We can see that the idea of getting justice in court of law, largely controlled by the ruling class, is not always guaranteed for an average man. In most cases, such justice, if eventually served, would have suffered much delay, which in itself can be regarded as another form of injustice. Justice delayed, they say, is justice denied.
For us, the struggle to take back sanity into the Nigerian system and all her sectors remains undaunted for us. We encourage the public to continue to lend their voices for diligent and transparent investigations into the issues surrounding the detention of #FreeOyo11 who have been facing torture already while the police sleeps.
In 21st century, where it is unethical for Police alone to investigate and prosecute suspect without presence of ministry of justice’s representative in process of interrogation and statement writing, reverse is rather the case in our ministry of Justice because their officials have neglected their official duties on “Sebi, the Police are helping us”. This empowers the interogators (police) to force and torture suspects while taking their statement without the presence legal representative who will stand to protect the suspect’s right to freedom of speech as established in 1999 constitution. These acts have terminate/cut short lives of innocent citizens and has landed many citizens in prison for crimes they had no knowledge of.
We can also see that since over a year too, Oyo state has refused to publish reports of the judicial panel on #EndSARS. This cannot be disconnected from possible cover ups by the state on the events, that is, killings and brutalization of citizens that happened at Ojoo. We believe that the truth cannot be covered no matter how long, because this truth is already with the masses.
Lastly, we condemn in strong terms this lackadaisical attitude of the state and its actors on the question of justice and we use this medium to demand immediate actions on the aforementioned issues.
Viva Aluta!
Signed:
Com. Emiola Solomon
State Coordinator
