Leading Pro-democracy advocacy organization, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned the Nigeria Police Force and the Kogi state governor ?for their reckless abuse of power by attempting to frustrate the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District Mrs. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from going to her family house and receiving her constituents.?

HURIWA said the conspiratorial plot between the Police of Kogi state command and the APC governor and first cousin of Yahaya Bello the immediate past governor and a political rival of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to undermine the planned peaceful assembly by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan in her own home in Kogi State is totally unjustifiable and unacceptable.

"HURIWA is miffed that the Nigeria Police Force which is a creation of the Nigerian Constitution that ought to work to advance the common good, has unfortunately become the official 'attack dog' and has further deteriorated to become the official "LAPDOG' of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

"The hierarchy of the Nigeria Police Force must as a matter of fact and as a matter of national importance and urgency, should and must take steps to shake off their parasitic attachment to the party that produced the current president of Nigeria and operate in compliance with the constitutional provisions and the Police Act of 2020 which necessarily mandates the Nigeria Police Force to become a professional, politically unaffiliated and patriotic organisation that serves the interest of all Nigerians and not that of the All Progressives Congress in such a way that they are deployed to embark on a political witch-hunt gambit and practically made to behave like the official vigilantes of All Progressives Congress.

"Why should the Kogi State police command follow sheepishly the political directive of the APC governor by abusing the police Act of 2020 and using illegal means through totally politically motivated and contrived reasons to attempt to stop Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from exercising her constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights to freedom of movement, freedom of peaceful Assembly and freedom of information?

"This is a total deterioration of policing standards that must be confronted and the commissioner of police made to face investigation to provide evidence of security threats that he cited for attempting to carry out the partisan instructions of the All Progressives Congress to muzzle a citizen of Nigeria of her Human Rights? HURIWA believed that the so-called security concerns are the contrived and dangerously partisan plot of the All Progressives Congress to frustrate the PDP Senator from going ahead with her preplanned rally. This is undemocratic.

HURIWA recalled that within 48 hours to the planned homecoming event organised by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the Kogi State Government apparently doing the bidding of former governor Yahaya Bello a rabid political opponent of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, illegally banned rallies and public gatherings in the state over ?security reports?.

The government disguised the intention of the phantom ban on rallies by asserting that it has also stopped fishing and other activities, lamenting that fishing activities resulted in the loss of two lives in Kasemiya, Katubo and Umozu Ette, all in Kogi Local Government Area in Kogi West.

In a statement on Monday, the Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, said the move was to prevent any form of security breach that might destabilise the state.

The Kogi state Police command mimicking the All Progressives Congress's Kogi state governor also illegally asked organisers of a homecoming rally for Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to cancel it.

In a statement on Tuesday, the spokesman of the Kogi Police Command, William Aya, hinged the warning on an ?intelligence report?.

?The call for cancellation becomes necessary, noting that intelligence reveals that some hoodlums plan to hijack the process and cause a disturbance of peace in the State. The Command cannot afford to jeopardize the existing peace the State is currently enjoying,? the statement read.

Aya said, ?In view of the security threat received on the planned rally, the Kogi State Police Command is therefore advising the organisers to cancel the event so as to avoid any breakdown of law and order in the State?.

HURIWA condemned this outrageous, primitive and unconstitutional misuse of police mandate which is to serve the public good of all citizens but the Kogi state police command has transmuted the Nigeria Police Force into the 'official LAPDOG' and the 'attack dog' of the All Progressives Congress. This is absolutely despicable and condemnable.

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