By Godwin Ajom
Following the harassment, beating and arrest of ten peaceful protesters of the August 1 #EndBadGovernance in Cross River State, Human Rights Lawyer, Barrister James Ibor, has called on state and federal authorities to fish out and discipline the erring security personnel or risk legal action.
Recall that nine peaceful protesters including a mother and the Managing Editor of CrossRiverWatch, Jonathan Ugbal were arrested and handcuffed along Marian Road on August 1, 2024, for protesting bad governance and among other sundry issues in the country. They were however released hours later after much pressured.
While it’s constitutional for citizens to stage peaceful protest, police sources say the demonstrators were arrested for failing to get a permit from the state police command before hitting the streets. The protesters argued that wasn’t the case but blamed the police for refusing to grant them access to do so.
In an exclusive interview with one of the protesters, Jonathan Ugbal, explained that he and other protesters less than hundred in number, weren’t violent or coercive at any point, as they only sang solidarity songs and clapped while security operatives and passersby watched aloof.
Jonathan narrated that the Police attempted implicating them of possessing a weapon (dagger) with them, despite showing the police the owner of the said knife: “They beat the hell out of us and accused one of us that he was the one who possessed a dagger. We kept pointing at the man who has the dagger, but they refused to even listen to us. They injured some of us and took us to the State CID, stripped us to our clothes up to our boxers and beat us more severely again and made us sit on bare floor,” he said.
Barrister James Ibor, has called on Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River State, to come clean and openly disassociate himself from the arrest of the ten #EndBadGovernance protesters in Calabar.
Ibor also charged the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, the Cross River State Commissioner of Police CP Gyogon Grimah, to investigate the arrest and alleged brutality of Jonathan Ugbal and nine others or will be faced with law suit.
Ibor said: “When we arrived the scene, witnesses told us that they were beaten, tortured and taken into vans out of that place. Further enquiry reveals that the team was led by one Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Victor Duke, who’s the personal security attached to the Governor.
“He led a team of some criminal police officers to disrupt the peaceful demonstration. That action is condemnable, and highly reprehensible. we call on the Commissioner of Police in Cross River and the Inspector General of Police, to discipline the team of police officers who came and disrupted the peaceful demonstration.”
The Human Rights Lawyer expressed that “It is sad, that despite the fact that we had over on thousand police officers in our street on August 1, 2023, and one hundred officers along that stretch of about five hundred metres, along Marian Road, ten unarmed peaceful demonstrators were arrested for exercising their constitutional duties to say no to back governance, no to poverty, no to hardship, no to hunger, they were arrested. We call on the Governor of Cross River State, to come out publicly and tell peace-loving Cross Riverians that he is not involved. Otherwise, there’s a wound in our hearts, that may cause us to begin to doubt his ‘People’s First’ Mantra.
“He should come out to disassociate himself, otherwise, we’ll associate him with what happened. We have resolved to continue to encourage Cross Riverians to remain calm and peaceful in demonstrating against insensitivity in government, which again has been demonstrated and the Cross River State Government should condemn and expose every police officer who was involved, otherwise, we would have no option than to approach the law court,” he warned.
The protest has been weakened in the state due to the government’s deliberate dissuading of intending protesters.
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