The Briton accused of inciting insurrection against President Bola Tinubu’s government, Drew Povey has urged the Nigerian government not to treat protests as treason.
Mr Povey, whom the Nigerian
government said also bears the name Andrew Wynne, said this in a statement in
reaction to the government’s allegation of building “a network of sleeper cells
to topple” the Bola Tinubu administration “and plunge the nation into chaos.”
Povey’s bookshop located at the
Abuja headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had earlier been raided
and sealed.
Part of the charges against him
was enabling some #EndBadGovernance protesters “with intent to destabilize
Nigeria.”
The statement on the letterhead
of his bookshop reads: “PROTEST IS NOT TREASON – release all the detainees! The
mass protests over #EndBadGovernance and #EndHunger frightened the government.
But rather than addressing the peoples’ demands, the government turned to repression.
“Perhaps 40 people were
murdered by the police and other security forces, thousands were arrested and
many still remain in captivity. In Abuja, the authorities have attacked the
so-called leaders and organisers of the protests. Ten people face ridiculous
charges including treason, mutiny and levying war against the state.
“The NLC promised a general
strike to protect its President, Joe Ajaero, from arrest and detention in
relation to similar charges. Despite the flimsy nature of the evidence against
the detainees, they face long years in prison unless the trade union movement
is prepared to protect them. On 7th August the NLC said it, “condemns in the
strongest terms the human rights violations perpetrated by security forces
against peaceful protesters.”
“The first person to be
arrested in this case was Eleojo Opaluwa. He is a former colleague of Joe
Ajaero, working for NUEE, the electricians union, as an organiser in Abuja. He
is also the Vice Chair of the NLC in Kogi State. He has now been detained for
over 4 weeks with no tangible evidence. His family was told that he had
received a WhatsApp message from one of the other alleged leaders. This was
after Eleojo had actually been detained.
“The ten detainees have been
accused of conspiracy to commit a range of serious crimes. However, they barely
know each other. Five of them may have been members of a WhatsApp group set up
to organise the protests in Abuja. But the other five are unknown to these
comrades. They may be a few of the flag waving protesters from Kano who were
added to extend the range of the organizers to cover the main protests from
Sokoto to Maiduguri
“There appears to be a conflict
between the government and the police investigating this case. The head of the
Intelligence Response Team (IRT) told the detainees’ lawyers that he would have
released them, but that he had orders from above not to set them free. So the
police have developed what appears to be a ridiculous case involving the owner
of Iva Valley Books. They are claiming that he goes under the name of Andrew
Povich, a Russian-sounding name, and that he has now left Nigeria for Russia.
“Neither of these claims are
true. Yomi, who works for Iva Valley Books, has, like the other detainees, been
treated in a terribly inhumane manner. He was arrested in front of his wife and
three-year old daughter. All their phones were confiscated by the police. This
was despite appeals from his wife that they needed a phone to get money for
food.
“He was then imprisoned
illegally and held in chains, beaten and tortured for three days. His only
involvement was to design flyers for the protests on the instructions of his
boss. The NLC has shown that it has the power to protect its President. It now
needs to extend this action to protect its other officers, its members and the
general public.”
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