Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on the United Nations (UN) Working group to Intervene in the unlawful detention of Owoyele Sowore and 4 others.
The group stated that it had written a letter of complaint to the UN Working Group seeking the body to request the Nigerian authorities to set Sowore and others free.
Recall that TheNewsBeam earlier reported that a Magistrate court in Nigeria has ordered the detention of Sowore and 4 others in Kuje Prison.
They were arrested during a protest in Abuja on the eve of the New year and had been arraigned before the Magistrate court in Abuja for criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, and attempting to incite others.
Announcing the action taken by Serap on its official Twitter handle, the group wrote that it had sent the complaint yesterday Monday, January 4, 2020.
“The complaint sent yesterday, read in part: ‘The Working Group should request the Nigerian authorities to withdraw the bogus charges against Mr Sowore and four other activists, and to immediately and unconditionally release them.
The detention of Omoyele Sowore and four other activists constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of their liberty because it does not have any legal justification. The detention also does not meet minimum international standards of due process.”
The group also adds that:
”The arrest, continued detention and torture and ill-treatment of Mr Sowore and four other s solely for peacefully exercising their human rights to freedom of expression and assembly is a flagrant violation of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999 (as amended) and international law.
The Working Group should request the Nigerian government to award Mr Sowore and four other activists adequate compensation for the violations they have suffered as a result of their unlawful arrest, arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment.”
