Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has written to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention over the “torture and ill-treatment” of Omoyele Sowore and four other activists.
The Sahara Reporters publisher and the rest are at the Kuje Correctional Centre on the orders of an Abuja Magistrates’ Court.
SERAP urged the Working Group to request President Muhammadu Buhari government to withdraw the charges against the detainees and release them.
Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, called the government’s action a deprivation of their liberty.
The complaint was addressed to José Guevara Bermúdez Chairman/Rapporteur of the Working Group.
The body insisted that the citizens were peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
SERAP said the arrest was in violation of Nigeria’s constitution and obligations under the international human rights law.
“We urge the Working Group to request the Nigerian government to investigate and hold accountable all police officers and security agents suspected to be responsible for the unlawful arrest, continued detention, and torture and other ill-treatment of Mr Sowore and four other activists”, it demanded.
