Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has declared this year’s Democracy Day a lacklustre one.

The group came to this conclusion because this administration’s first year in office is “without any progressive milestones given that in the last one year the government has clamped into detention dissenting voices and foisted multiple charges that aren’t sustainable if the judiciary is truly independent.”

HURIWA accused the government of sending secret police to bug and monitor movements and telephone conversations of credible civil society leaders including the National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria. The group said government must respect the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights as enshrined in Chapter Four of the Constitution if we ever hope to make democracy sustainable and viable.

The group, therefore, condemned the continuous detention and trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Director of the Europe Based Radio Biafra, Mr Nnamdi Kanu; and the failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to respect the due process of the law in the cases involving such political opponents like erstwhile Director of Media of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council and former Aviation Minister Chief Femi Fani-Kayode; the immediate past National Security Adviser to the President Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd).

Besides, HURIWA also lambasted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Service (DSS) of harassing and intimidating perceived political opponents of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government.

Corollary, HURIWA revealed that the DSS and EFCC have begun manhunt and harassment of leaders of non-governmental groups and independent civil society stakeholders and the judges of the nation’s court system.

The group alleged that the EFCC has been particularly being accused of deploying crude and primitive tactics including Gestapo style military strategies to psycho-physically intimidate judges by threatening to keep their financial transactions under security watch just so that the judges can do the bidding of the Federal Government.

The rights group, equally, condemned the selective investigation of the campaign funding of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whereas all allegations of heist of public fund against some APC erstwhile governors who sponsored President Muhammadu Buhari’s election last year have been disregarded by EFCC.

•Photo shows President Buhari.

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