Featured, Politics
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Police commissioner Joseph Mbu’s directive banning rallies or protests in Abuja federal capital territory and its environs with effect from Monday, June 2, sparks off adverse nationwide reactions prompting Mohammed Abubakar, inspector general of police, to overrule him
| By Vincent Nzemeke | Jun. 16, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
JOSEPH Mbu, federal capital territory, FCT, commissioner of police, is a professional policeman who does not like to take chances. The “#Bring Back Our Girls” daily campaign, designed to pressure the federal government to secure the release of the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted in Borno, which has taken a life of its own in Abuja, is giving him goose pimples. He fears that Boko Haram insurgents could infiltrate the ranks of the protesters to cause serious security problems for him. As a professional policeman, he decided to stir the hornet’s nest by placing a total ban on the campaign.
On Monday, June 2, Mbu announced at a press conference that all protests related to the abduction of the girls which took place on April 14, had been banned in the city with immediate effect. Mbu hinged the ban on the fact that the protesters who have been protesting at the Unity Fountain in Abuja for over a month, had posed serious security threats to the city.
He added that the police had gotten an intelligent report that some hoodlums were planning to hijack the protest and detonate explosives which was likely to ĸill people and embarrass the government. “Information reaching us is that very soon, dangerous elements will join groups under the guise of protest and detonate explosives aimed at embarrassing the government. Accordingly, protests on the Chibok girls are hereby banned with immediate effect. As the FCT police boss, I cannot fold my hands and watch this lawlessness”, he said.
Mbu noted that that clashes between rival groups of protesters also put the city at risk. He said that after a group under the aegis of “#Bring Back Our Girls’’ led by Oby Ezekwesili, a former minister of education, protested on April 28, another group known as “Release Our Girls’’ emerged and that resulted in a crisis at the Unity Fountain.
Mbu, who shot into limelight during his tenure as the commissioner of police in Rivers State, where he was always at loggerheads with Rotimi Amaechi, the state governor, lamented the fact that the Unity Fountain, where the “#Bring Back Our Girls” protesters have always stayed had been turned to a place for cooking and street trading.
Mbu also said the protester had become a nuisance with their continued protest which has now lasted for over a moth. “People have been protesting over a month now. It is the issue of terrorism; it is not solved in one day. When you continue to do it persistently, it becomes a nuisance to the government,” he said. He advised residents in Abuja to encourage the security agencies in the war against terrorism and criminality by appreciating the sacrifices they had made and would continue to make.
Typical of his days in Rivers State, Mbu appears to have drawn a battle line with the protesters with the ban. Since the announcement, there have been a groundswell of reactions from various quarters. Many people have accused him of being over-zealous and doing the biddings of the federal government which is clearly against the protest.
Reacting to the ban, leaders of the #Bring Back Our Girls” group has vowed to continue the protests. The group described Mbu’s action as illegal because he has no right to stop a peaceful protest.
Ezekwesili who is the coordinator of the group said Mbu needs to take basic classes on the tenets on democracy. She added that the police commissioner had no right to place a ban on the protest which, according to her, has been peaceful. “He should go and take basic classes on democracy. There is no basis and the FCT commissioner of police has no power to ban peaceful assembly of any group of persons in the city.
“We of the Abuja family of “#Bring Back Our Girls” have, in the face of harassment by both the Nigeria police and hired thugs, maintained our civility. What commissioner Mbu should do is reprimand their sponsored thugs who attacked us women at our peaceful gathering.”
Towing a similar path, Tsambido Abana, leader of the Chibok Community in Abuja, urged Mbu to read the Nigerian constitution and upgrade his knowledge on the fundamental rights of citizens to protest. “We will continue to protest until the girls are released, the CP should go and read the Nigerian constitution and he would know that we have the right to associate and protest. He cannot stop us”, he said.
Some prominent lawyers have reacted to the ban. Many of them are of the view that placing a ban on protests has no place in a democratic dispensation. A Lagos-based lawyer, Festus Keyamo, said: “The statement credited to the commissioner of police of the federal capital territory, Joseph Mbu, banning all protests over the kidnap of the Chibok girls is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void. It is against the sprit and letters of section 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right. All the above guarantee freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.”
He added: “It is shocking that the Federal Government, hiding under the facade of the police, has finally openly displayed its disdain for the public outcry over the kidnap of those innocent souls. The government has shown that it is more concerned about its image and self-preservation than the safety of those girls”
Another lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, also described the ban as an embarrassment to the police authority. He urged the protesters to ignore the directive and carry on with their protests. “Mr. Mbu has no right to issue such a directive. Once the citizens surrender the right to protest and on what to protest on to any institution, then the citizens will make themselves slaves in their fatherland.
“The directive purportedly issued by him is clearly unconstitutional and I think if he had been properly advised he would not have issued such directive. As far as the law is concerned, no directive has been issued and that kind of statement can really embarrass the police authority”, he said.
Perhaps, the apparent embarrassment prompted Mohammed Abubakar, inspector general of police, to overrule Mbu’s order. He said the police high command regarded peaceful rallies as the constitutional and democratic rights of Nigerians. Said Abubakar: “The Police high command wishes to inform the general public that the force has not issued any order banning peaceful assemblies/protests anywhere in Nigeria. The Police only issued advisory notice enjoining citizens to apply caution while holding rallies, particularly in the FCT and its evirons.
“Citizens are strongly advised to consider their positions on the issues of rallies and protests in the FCT until the existing threats are appropriately neutralized and removed from our midst by relevant security agencies.” Abubakar reassured Nigerians of the commitment of the police to protect lives and property as well as advance the course of democracy in Nigeria.
But Ezekwesili was not persuaded by the assurances of the police boss. She said the group had already gone to court to challenge the order. In a suit filed at a federal high court by Femi Falana, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, the group is seeking a N200 million as damages for violation of the rights of its members by police commissioner Mbu. The group is contending that Mbu’s no-rally directive was a violation of members’ fundamental human rights as guaranteed by sections 38,39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as Articles 8,9,10 and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, 2004
The plaintiffs want the court to, among other prayers, to declare that Mbu’s decision to ban protests and rallies in the FCT with effect from Monday, June 2S, illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
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