The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP), has urged President Bola Tinubu to stop the “weaponisation” of the Department of State Services and other security agencies in the country, and instead focus on ways to revive the national economic hardship.
SERAP noted that the free expression of fundamental human rights is significant and should not be suppressed, accusing the Tinubu-led government of “threats of baseless lawsuits” against human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and other citizens.
In an issued statement yesterday, signed by SERAP’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation urged Tinubu to “direct the Department of State Services to immediately withdraw the baseless defamation lawsuit brought by their proxies against our organisation and management staff.”
“It is critical for human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and other citizens to be able to organise and freely exercise their human rights without the threat of baseless lawsuits from your government or its security agencies and/or their proxies.
“Weaponising the security agencies to intimidate, harass, and silence human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and other civil society actors will weaken representative democracy, deepen impunity, and undermine the rule of law”.
Recall that on September 9, officials of the DSS reportedly took over SERAP’s Abuja office barely 24 hours after the organisation urged Tinubu to leverage his leadership and authority to instruct the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)to promptly reverse the hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, at its retail outlets.
However, the security outfit clarified that its agents were detailed for a routine investigation, adding that the officers’ actions had been misinterpreted as harassment and intimidation.
SERAP noted that using the security agencies to “intimidate, harass, and silence human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and other civil society actors will weaken representative democracy, deepen impunity, and undermine the rule of law.
It equally urged the Federal Government to “embrace the rule of law, which will, in turn, entail respect for the human rights of Nigerians. Where there is a culture of rule of law, there is likely to be less corruption”.
