By Amos Aar
LAWYERS Alert Nigeria, a rights-based organisation that advocates and protects the rights of citizens, has sought the collaboration of media practitioners to facilitate a 9-month program, Freedom of Peaceful Assembly (FOPA), which it has embarked on so as to promote civic rights in Nigeria.
The organisation solicited media support Wednesday in its Makurdi office during an engagement with journalists.
In a welcome address, Senior Legal Advisor, Victor Eboh, Esq., said section 40 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution provides that every citizen has the right to freely assemble and express themselves and that that right cannot be subjugated, negated or subdued because it’s a fundamental right.
Eboh noted that journalists have a germane and pivotal role to play in order to guarantee the freedom of peaceful assembly by citizens.
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In his presentation, Mr Lazarus Mom, who led discussion on developing campaign messages for peaceful assembly, said the program is supported by CIVICUS, an international organisation from the United States of America that protects the rights of citizens.
Mom further explained that the aim of the project is to ensure that government, through security agencies, recognises first of all that people have the right to peaceful assembly, the right to protest, the right to demonstrate and the right to gather together and make a case on issues that concern them.
According to Mom, while all these are guaranteed fundamental human rights under the country’s legal framework, he however lamented that government is always uncomfortable with people expressing themselves and it’s a challenging issue even in developed countries.
Mom said it’s wrong for the police to stop people from protesting, but instead arrest those who may cause trouble in the course of protest because it’s the fundamental human right of people to express their grievances.
A senior legal officer, Ozobulu Solumtochukwu, Esq., advised that before people protest, they should write to the police to inform them but not to seek permission but to get cover.
She however said in an event the police instruct the intending protesters to hold on because likely security threats, such a protest has to be suspended to avoid arrest in case the protest planned to be peaceful ends up violently.
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In a vote of thanks, Grace Tyowua, a staff of Lawyers Alert, appreciated the journalists for their commitment throughout the engagement and expressed optimism that the project would be a success given the level of dedication and inputs made by the participants. Highlights of the engagement were composition and presentation of campaign messages for freedom of peaceful assembly which are to be disseminated in the form of short videos, fliers, brochures and stickers during the 9-month program which the organisation said started in October 2023.
