Federal Govt under fire for tagging #EndSARS campaigners terrorists

 

The Federal Government came under fire on Wednesday for tagging of #EndSARS campaigners as terrorists with prominent citizens and groups deploring the Central Bank of Nigeria’s action, which led to the freezing of the accounts of some of the campaigners.

The Federal Government had succeeded in freezing the accounts of 20 #EndSARS campaigners after telling a Federal High Court in Abuja that the funds in their accounts might have been linked to terrorist activities.

This was according to a written address in support of a motion ex parte filed by the CBN, which froze 20 accounts in the second week of October and thereafter approached the court to seek an ex parte order to freeze the accounts.

In the case with suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1384/2020, filed before Justice A. R. Mohammed, the CBN, however, made no mention of the fact that the 20 accounts were owned by persons involved in the #EndSARS protests, but told the court that the funds might have emanated from terrorist activities.

Reacting to this, The Nigerian Bar Association said on Wednesday that blocking the accounts of #EndSARS protesters on the pretext that they were terrorism suspects showed that the Federal Government was insincere.

Reacting to the apex bank’s action, a prominent Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, on Wednesday described the Federal Government’s tagging of the promoters of the #EndSARS protests as terrorists as  unlawful, unconstitutional and insensitive.

Ozekhome, who said he found it hard to believe that the CBN made such a claim in the application filed to obtain the court order freezing the accounts, noted that the rights to protest were guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution.

Also, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Tayo Oyetibo, said the right to protest was guaranteed by the country’s constitution and by no stretch of imagination could a protester be tagged a terrorist.

On his part, a former Chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Dr Chidi Odinkalu, tweeted that the government regarded treasury looters as saints and #EndSARS protesters as terrorists.

He wrote, “Reprisals: @cenbank says those who protested to #EndSARS & those who supported them were terrorists.