Barr. James Ibor, Principal Counsel, BRCI (middle), pose with Comrade Jonathan Ugbal (R), and other arrested but released protesters.
By Ita Williams
The EndBadGovernanceInNigeria by a handful of protesters on August 1, kicked started their match peacefully at the Mary Slessor roundabout by Marian road Calabar, Cross River state chanting solidarity songs despite the heavy security presence and the downpour.
But the protest turned sour when a team of Policemen in the state swooped in on the protesters along Marian Road, and the Managing Editor of CrossRiverWatch and few others were arrested. The protest ended abruptly.
The State Police Command through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Irene Ugbo confirmed their arrest and release saying, “it was not a peaceful protest. As they gathered, before we knew it, they started recruiting people walking on the street to join them and started causing problem that’s why we arrested them”. Moreover, the police said the protesters did not obtain police clearance.
Beyond this, Pillar Today on August 1,spoke with the Principal Counsel of Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (BRCI), Barr. James Ibor, one of the victims, the Managing Editor of CrossRiverWatch and few others on the protest and arrest. Excerpts:
The Principal Council of BRCI, Barr. James Ibor :
In line with our resolve to provide support to all peaceful protesters in Calabar, Cross River state, we received a call few minutes past 11am or around past 12 noon or thereabout that some peaceful protesters led by Jonathan Ugbal have been arrested while peacefully assembling around Marian by MarySlessor. When we got to the scene witnesses told us that they were beaten, tortured and taken into vans out of that place.
Further inquiry revealed that the team was led by one who has been confirmed by some of the victims of that arrest was led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, (name withheld) who is the personal security attached to the governor. He led a team of some police officers to disrupt a peaceful demonstration.
That action is condemnable and highly reprehensible. We call on the Commissioner of Police and the Inspector General of Police to discipline the team of police officers who came and disrupted the peaceful demonstration.
It is sad that in spite of the fact that we had over 1000 police officers on our streets and over 100 police officers along that stretch of about 500 metres, 10 unarmed peaceful demonstrators were arrested for carrying out or for exercising their constitutional duty to say no to bad governance, to say no to poverty, no to hardship, no to hunger.
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 is a wound in our heart that may cause us to begin to doubt his people’s first mantra.
He should come out to disassociate himself. Otherwise we will associate him with what happened this afternoon (Thursday afternoon). 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 come out as a government to condemn and expose every police officer who was involved. Otherwise we will have no option than to approach the law court. This cannot repeat itself.
In 2021, the then governor also used his aides, his personal security guards to disrupt peaceful demonstration. We are having a repeat in 2024 and we will not allow this to continue to happen.
Maybe the courts will have to pronounce on peaceful assembly and peaceful demonstration in times like this.
One of the Victims, Managing Editor, CrossRiverWatch, and Coordinator, Taking Back Cross River State, Jonathan Ugbal narrating his ordeal in the hands of the police :
My name is Jonathan Ugbal, and I am the Coordinator of Taking Back Cross River State.
Just like every other Nigerian, we exercised our rights to freedom of expression. We gathered at Mary Slessor Avenue starting at around 8:30 am. We urged people to understand our purpose and spoke to passers-by about our reasons for being on the streets.
We also utilized social media to spread our message. Journalists, as well as law enforcement officials from Air Force , Navy, DSS, Army, and the Police, were present and they were all cordial in their interactions with us.
After some time speaking with the people, we decided it was time for us to disperse and we took a short walk towards Rabana by Marian, while those going in the direction of Calabar South remained behind. It was raining, and we were close to the Marian Pay Office, just after the Cross River State Sector of the Road Safety Corp.
A team from the Counter Terrorists Unit, which is attached to the Governor’s Office and led by the Governor’s ADC, came and stopped us. Some people were scared because some of them were wearing masks and had red headdresses. They threatened that they were going to shoot anyone who runs.
I asked those who were planning to leave not to run because they had identified themselves as police officers. Instead, I suggested that we wait and hear what they had to say. They approached us and asked us to lie on the ground, despite the rain and passing vehicles. In fact a vehicle stopped just 50 metres before the head of a protester, and after a while, a one police officer (name withheld) claimed that they had spotted a dagger earlier in our midst. And we told him that, that dagger was brought to that place (MarySlessor round about) by a para military personnel whom we had stopped to ask what his business was and this same policeman told him (the para military man) to go away. But we told him this is the man who brought the dagger yet he left the person to go that he did not know what he was talking about and he should not implicate himself. And he left on a motorbike with two of his colleagues. As you know motorbikes have been banned in Calabar.
He was dressed in a cotton-coloured trouser, which suggests he is a paramilitary personnel. He wore boots with two daggers one dangling by his side and the other by his boots. He wore a special forces shirt with a red beret, and the beret had a black symbol and he was asked to leave.
They beat the hell out of us. They tied my hands behind my back. They also beat one of us, and they said he was the one who possessed the dagger, despite the fact that he wasn’t the one. Even when we kept pointing at the one who possessed the dagger, same police officer and the rest of the counter-terrorism police officers refused to listen to us. One of the persons in our midst who was being attacked by the policemen, kept insisting and asking them why were they arresting us when the governor himself had said that people are allowed to protest, because it is their right so long as they are peaceful, and we were peaceful in our activities. They slapped the hell out of us and as I am talking to you right now, I still can’t feel my cheek properly and my jaw. They took us to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) where we were made to strip and we were beaten the second time again. We were stripped to our boxers and made to sit on the bare floor. After a while, they took me to the CP (Commissioner of Police), who said he had invited us, and we refused to turn up. Meanwhile the reality is that we kept calling them (police ) yesterday (Thursday) to let them know that we are protesting but they did not answer us rather they said the CP was engaged.
When Irene (the PPRO) said the Commissioner of Police wanted to see me, I told her I was on my way to Yenegoa and when I come back I will come and see him. On July 31st I made effort to see him, the PPRO said he was in a security meeting. I told the CP so and he said I should not worry that everybody will carry his cross and I said know.
Luckily for us our lawyer, James Ibor Esq came and spoke with them and we were all released. But I must say this is a repetition of what happened on June 12, 2021 when the then ADC to then Governor Ben Ayade led the same counter terrorists unit to Rabana round about where we were protesting, push down a Chief Superintendent of police at that time, beat the hell out of us, planted bullets and accused us of being IPOB terrorists and that matter never went anywhere. The question now is, is it that junior officers attached to governors are now bigger than the Commissioner of Police, that Commissioner of Police will release men into the streets to ensure that protesters conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner and to protect them from being attacked by goons who are usually employed by state actors?
One of the Leaders of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest, Richard Inoyo, condemned the arrest of the protesters saying:
The claim for arresting the protesters is that they did not get Police clearance before embarking on a protest. There is nowhere in the constitution that said you must get clearance from the police before staging a peaceful protest.
In chapter 4, section 39 and 40 of the Constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria as amended gives Right to Freedom of Expression.
