The decision of the iconic musician, Mr. Innocent Tuface Idibia, to call off his version of the proposed nationwide February 6th public protests against bad governance due to entrenched police harassment and threats to use violent force to quell the otherwise peaceful marches shows that Nigeria under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is in a police state.

In a statement to the media jointly issued by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) said the Nigeria Police, which has long showed itself as a willing tool in the hands of oppressive dictatorships has now succeeded in driving dissenting voices underground which will inevitably result in possible violent revolution given the excruciating economic situation faced by millions of Nigerians.

“In all of these shenanigans that were played out by the different levels of the Police Force culminating in the issuance of a written threat from the office of the Inspector General of Police warning Tuface and other Nigerians not to demonstrate on February 6th or risk being killed, the greatest victim is the current government. The international standing of this government has nosedived and it is now officially a police state. One thing is sure the collective will of the greatest percentage of the suffering masses will explore other undesirable avenues to voice their angst against the evil policies of this administration which have impoverished millions of Nigerians. You can’t beat up a child and stop him from wailing.”

HURIWA said it was shameful that President Buhari who as a member of the political opposition for over a decade benefitted from public demonstrations has now become an obstacle to constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly.

“How can Muhammadu Buhari whose party as at 2007 (ANPP) alongside like minded parties went to court to challenge and successfully scored victory for Nigerians by voiding the draconian military/colonial era public order Act now turn back to employ crude police tactics to stop Nigerians from exercising their constitutional rights to freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly? This is the ninth wonder of the world.

Democracy is about to be slaughtered on the altar of selfish political gambit.”

Expressing disappointment that Tuface Idibia for fear of arrest has had to call off his version of the planned peaceful mass rallies the Rights group affirmed that the other groups who may still desire to proceed with the public rallies may do so even as the Rights group has called on members of the international community to monitor the activities of the Nigerian police to stop them from illegally deploying brute force against unarmed demonstrators as has been done by the Police and other security forces in recent times when they killed over 200 unarmed members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

“We want the Inspector General of Police to note that his dictatorial and unconstitutional decision to brandish unsubstantiated security reports of possible breach of peace as the fake and contrived weapon to harass organisers of civil protests will succeed in driving voices of opposition underground which will inevitably make them deploy other revolutionary tactics which will foist a situation of anarchy and chaos in the public space of Nigeria. Those who make peaceful changes impossible are simply creating rooms for violent revolutions. The people of Nigeria won’t be cowed into absolute enslavement endlessly. Soon the suffering masses will wake up from government’s propaganda induced slumber and viciously explore other undesirable but strategic avenues to voice their angst against the evil policies of this administration which have impoverished millions of Nigerians,” HURIWA said.

Besides, HURIWA said by the action of using threats of deployment of police brutality to stop the proposed national peaceful rallies the police has further alienated herself from the people and will never win the trust and confidence of the mass of rational Nigerians who will henceforth view them as public enemy number one. The group therefore warned that social crimes and other violent attacks may increase and that people will no longer cooperate with a policing institution that is absolutely anti-people.

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