A human rights coalition group, the Coalition of Civil and Human Rights Organizations (COCHRO), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to use his current position as the nation’s leader to name the Nigeria Law School after the late legal luminary and social crusader, Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi, SAN, popularly called “Gani”.

According to the group’s leader, Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, this call is justified because Gani contributed immensely to the development of the legal profession in Africa, particularly, Nigeria.

He also called for the unconditional release of political and revolutionary detainees across the length and breadth of the country, including the Publisher of the online medium, Sahara Reporters, Comrade Omoyele Sowore; Agba Jaligo and a host of others.

Comrade Sulaiman made the demands after the 10th anniversary memorial prayer organized for the late legal icon, Gani Fawehinmi, in Lagos last Thursday, where prayers were offered for the repose of the soul of the human rights crusader and the family members he left behind. The prayer also featured a protest demanding for the unconditional release of Sowore, who was also the Presidential Candidate of African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 general elections and other political and revolutionary detainees in the country.

Suleiman who reiterated that the prayer was organised in honour of late Gani in appreciation of his great contribution to the political life of the country and lives of many Nigerians at home and abroad, described him as a detribalised Nigerian that deserved naming of a federal institution after him such Nigeria Law School.

“Gani’s contribution towards the restoring of democracy back to Nigeria after many years of military incursion into our governance and widening of our political space through constitutional means cannot be overemphasized,” he said.

On Sowore, the rights activist disclosed that the group put its proposed 2-million-man-march rally on hold in solidarity with the present predicament of Nigerians living in South Africa, maintaining that all the allegations leveled against Sowore were figment of the imagination of security agents who misled the Buhari administration, adding, “all the said allegations were baseless and lacked any modicum of truth.”

He stressed that Sowore was right to call for revolution against the present administration of Buhari because all the tenets of democracy, such as accountability, transparency, free and fair election, political equality and respect for citizens' rights, had eluded the country.

According to him, “The purpose of law in any sane society, is to bring good governance to the masses and a government like that of present Buhari’s administration which is not ready to cater for welfare and security of the Nigerians, is a failed government and needs to be booted out.

“The purported interlocutory injunction to detain Sowore for 45 days is illegal, barbaric, draconian, and tyrannical and as a democracy fighter, we would not fold our arms and allow Buhari draw the country back to the dark days of military era. We have concluded arrangement to collaborate with other groups to launch a crucial sphere of struggle against the tyrannical government of Buhari and 2012 ‘Occupy Nigeria’ would be a child’s play,” he declared.

Sulaiman therefore warned the nation's judiciary against subjecting itself to the whims and caprices of President Buhari on the issue of national importance like Sowore and RevolutionNow movement.

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