A group, Ogun Youth Alliance (OYA) has warned against some surreptitious moves to trample on the fundamental human rights of the Senator-elect for Ogun East, Prince Buruji Kashamu, urging the National Human Rights Commission ( NHRC) and other rights groups not to stand by and watch the rights of citizen being bridged on the altar of politics.

In a statement issued yesterday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital and signed by the coordinator, Mr Oluremi Akinola, a lawyer, the group said it decided to intervene because Kashamu is presently holding the mandate of the good people of Ogun East and it will be absurd to trample on the right of the senator-elect without recourse to due process.

Kashamu had accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of working with local and foreign security agencies to abduct him to the United States of America.

The senator-elect, through his lawyer, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, said in a petition addressed to the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe, that Obasanjo was involved in the alleged plot to abduct him to the United States over drug-related indictment in the US because of the defeat the former President had suffered in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“We, at OYA, being kinsmen to both Obasanjo and Kashamu, are of the opinion that unnecessary pressures should not be mounted on security agencies over a case that had been variously ruled on by courts both in Nigeria and the United Kingdom exonerating Kashamu of the alleged offences.

“It is indeed, clear that these latest measures were part of the post-election blues that presented the lightweight nature of some individuals in Ogun State, while it is not unexpected, it is, however, appalling that these desperate politicians are even bent on watching their dirty linens at the international level.

“We urged the NHRC to look at the merit of the issue and also appeal to notable human rights groups in the country to stand up and conduct objective inquiry into the matter so that the fundamental human right to liberty and association of the senator-elect is not trampled upon at the behest of political interest,” Akinola said.

*Adapted from Daily Sun. Photo shows Kashamu.

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