Prominent civil Rights advocacy Group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has asked the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva Switzerland and the United Nations Secretary General in New York to mount pressure on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to deploy armed security operatives to kill off peaceful protesters planning series of peaceful protests on October 1st, 2024, to demonstrate against the heightened costs of living and bad governance.

HURIWA said its decision to make use of the media of mass communication to appeal to the United Nations is due to mounting evidence that the federal government of Nigeria under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is already deploying well-armed security operatives to shoot at peaceful marchers on October 1st just as these armed goons carried out targeted killings of over two dozen of protesters who participated in the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests across the country. HURIWA stated that those who killed peaceful protesters would be penciled down and dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague Netherlands over crimes against humanity. ?We are warning the military and police service chiefs including the head of the nation?s secret police to note that they may have to be dragged to the ICC in The Hague Netherlands to be held accountable over the lawless killings of peacefully protesters in Nigeria no matter how long it takes to achieve this objective by the organised civil rights community in Nigeria.?

In a media statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA said it was shocked that for nearly two months since after many peaceful protesters were extra-judicially killed by armed security forces deployed by the Nigerian government, the United Nations and virtually all the so-called leading lights of democracy such as the President of the USA, Mr. Joe Biden, the PM of UK and Canada and the European Union leaders maintained conspiratorial silence over these bloodshed by the Nigerian government and have continued to do business with the Nigerian government even when civilians were massacred by security agents for simply exercising their constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms to hold peaceful demonstrations in Nigeria. HURIWA stated that the continuous suppression of civic space by government making use of brute forces of armed security operatives is capable of endangering constitutional democracy in Nigeria.

HURIWA reminded the UN Human Rights Council of her obligations to protect human rights defenders and ensure that member Nations of the United Nations such as Nigeria which subscribed to several human rights treaties, respect, uphold and protect the Constitutionally protected fundamental freedoms just as the UNHRC stated in its official mandate thus: ?Everyone has the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, which are essential components of democracy. The right of peaceful assembly includes the right to hold meetings, sit-ins, strikes, rallies, events or protests, both offline and online. The right to freedom of association involves the right of individuals to interact and organize among themselves to collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests. This includes the right to form trade unions. Freedom of peaceful assembly and of association serve as a vehicle for the exercise of many other rights guaranteed under international law, including the rights to freedom of expression and to take part in the conduct of public affairs. The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association is protected by article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?.

HURIWA reminded the United Nations Human Rights Council that; ?UN Human Rights has a mandate to promote and protect the right of peaceful assembly and association. This involves providing technical advice, tools and guidance to all stakeholders on measures needed to facilitate and protect the enjoyment of these rights as well as conducting monitoring and reporting on how these rights are protected in practice. We also provide advice and monitoring of the management of protests, including on the use of force and supporting the promotion of dialogue to address the issues that underlie protests. Additionally, our work involves advising on the enabling environment and legal framework needed for the operation of associations.?

HURIWA then expressed disappointment that both the Secretary General of the UN, the president of the UN Human Rights Council did nothing to protest the needless and lawless killings of protesters in Nigeria by a democratically constituted federal administration led by Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu and demand accountability just as the Rights group is hereby demanding that the United Nations Secretary General should instruct the Country office of the UN in Nigeria to speak with the federal government of Nigeria on the need to protect protesters staging peaceful demonstrations on October 1st just as the Rights group demands that the UN Human Rights Council sends powerful observers from the UN?s office in Nigeria to monitor the protests of October 1st to ensure that peaceful marchers aren?t killed like it was last August. ?On no account should the security forces in Nigeria use brute force to quell peaceful protests. We reject the use of the state High courts to scuttle constitutional freedoms through subterfuge and ex parte orders.?

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