Emmanuel Fashakin
Nigeria's secret police yesterday arrested and later released a United
States based medical practitioner, Emmanuel Fashakin on arrival at the
Murtala Muhammad International Airport.
Dr. Fashakin is an older brother of Rotimi Fashakin, former spokesman
of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) arrived on Arik
airline flight into Lagos only to be detained by the SSS.
The doctor, who is also a lawyer, is well known for his comments on the state of affairs in Nigeria.
His lawyer, Bamidele Aturu confirmed the arrest and subsequent
release, stating that he was held for
several hours in the custody of the SSS both at the airport and its
Kingsway road offices in Ikoyi Lagos.
READ MORE AFTER THE CUT.....................................
The arrest of Dr. Fashakin offers evidence that the Goodluck Jonathan
government is opening a new front not in the war against Nigeria’s
problems of which it has become a part, but on critics of bad
governance.
In his letter to the Director General of the SSS, which was copied to
the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Aturu called
for his client to be released immediately.
He pointed out that it is indefensible to subject a person who had
been on an eleven hour non-stop flight to the physical and psychological
stress of detention which cause is not divulged for hours.
The lawyer also stressed that the detention constitutes an
unwarranted violation of the right of Dr. Fashakin to respect for the
dignity of his person and not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading
treatment as guaranteed by section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, Articles 4 and 5 of the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and all other International Human
Rights Instruments.
“Since no reason has been advanced for the detention of our client,
we want to believe that it has nothing to do with his well-known
expression on the internet of opinions about how to advance democracy in
Nigeria and ensure that our people are rescued from the abyss of
inexplicable poverty occasioned by greed and graft,” he said. “Whatever
may be the case, we would like to make it clear the arrest and
detention of our client is unacceptable and that we shall implacably
seek all possible and known legal remedies on his behalf.”
Demanding that Dr. Fashakin be released within 24 hours, Mr. Aturu
said he would otherwise be compelled to take all lawful and necessary
steps to ensure that the rights of his client are protected, including
going to court.
Nigerians believe Mr. Jonathan’s government to be the most corrupt
and hypocritical in the country’s history, and even his former Internet
fans who supported him in the 2011 elections continue to say so in
various fora.
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