Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, Amnesty International Nigeria’s Board of Trustees chairman, has declared that recent protests against the global rights watchdog in Nigeria are “clearly” being “sponsored”.

“There are some people and institutions who were fingered in our reports as responsible for human rights violations and they are not happy,” he told Anadolu Agency.

“Rather than trying to address the issue, they are busy organising and using fake and faceless groups to attack us but I am happy that the human rights community in Nigeria has come out to dismiss this faceless group hired and rented to attack Amnesty International,” Mr. Rafsanjani further said.

He spoke as a group of protesters on Thursday continued to besiege the Nigerian office of Amnesty International in the country’s capital, Abuja, accusing the rights group of promoting violations of the country’s laws and keeping quiet on terrorist activities in the guise of human rights protection.

“We are convinced that the mission of the Amnesty International in Nigeria is to shield terrorist and other lawless groups in the guise of protecting human rights,” Onyekpere John, a protest leader, told Anadolu Agency by phone as the protesters continued the picketing of the group’s office in the capital, Abuja.

“This same group has formed the habit of demonising our security agencies who are doing their legitimate duty of protecting the people,” he added, restating protesters’ demand that Amnesty should leave Nigeria within 24 hours.

The protesters began their action on Monday, armed with various leaflets and a coffin inscribed with the words: RIP Amnesty International.

On Thursday, leading civil rights lawyer Femi Falana wrote to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to condemn the harassment of the human rights body.

Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry earlier in March attacked the rights body for alleged meddling in local affairs and dismissed its 2016 report condemning alleged rights abuses by security agencies as “unfair and below global standard”.

The ministry’s statement mirrors earlier positions of the Nigerian military which claimed that the rights group often keeps quiet when violent groups strike but turns around to criticise security agencies – a claim rejected by the group.

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