BREAKING: Irish Parliament Member Urges Tinubu Govt To Immediately Free Detained #EndBadGovernance Protesters

Paul Murphy, a Member of Parliament representing Teachta Dála for the Dublin South-West constituency in Ireland has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Adaramoye Michael (Lenin) and all other #EndBadGovernance protesters arrested and detained by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

CN had reported that Amnesty International Nigeria said over 2,000 protesters were arrested across the country during the 10-day protests against hunger and misgovernance.

However, Paul Murphy who served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency from 2011 to 2014 in a statement on Thursday said President Tinubu’s administration has failed to arraign the protesters in court after 20 days in detention.

He stated that this shows that the government has no case against them, stressing that with the ongoing repression, the lives of socialists and human rights activists in Nigeria are under treat.

The Irish People Before Profit–Solidarity politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-West constituency since the 2014 Dublin South-West by-election called on Nigerian government to end the repression and meet the demand of the protesters.

The statement reads in part, “I write to join the international solidarity to demand an immediate end to attacks on democratic rights of socialists and #EndBadGovernance protesters in Nigeria by the federal government of Nigeria.

“According to reports there was a 10-day nationwide protest by Nigerians over continued inflation rates, high cost of foods, insecurity and mass hunger that has enveloped the country since the 29th of May 2023 that the Tinubu government came to power.

“The protests took a dramatic turn when police fired teargas canisters and live bullets on protesters, this resulted in the killing of over fifty people across the country and over two thousand are in detention at different police facilities across the country. We watched on social media gory photos of shooting of unarmed protesters and how sponsored political thugs attacked peaceful protesters.

“The attacks took a new level when on Sunday, 4th of August. President Tinubu during his nationwide broadcast, flippantly called for an end to the protest without meeting any demands of the protesters. Activists responded with call for more protests. The government responded with attacks on socialists and activists.

“Around 1:40am on Monday 5th of August, 2023 the combination of securities invaded the house of Adaramoye Michael, Mosiu Sodiq and Babatunde Oluajo (OSB). They were abducted in their apartment under the instruction of Mr Ribadu the National Security Adviser to President Tinubu. While Oluajo was released few days after. Others were in illegal detention for twenty days now.

“The wave of repression continues, when at 8pm on Wednesday, 7th of August, 2024, Nigeria Labour Congress one of the Labour centre in Nigeria was invaded by the Nigeria police and a bookshop was ransacked, all books in the shop were taken away by the police.

“As if this isn’t enough, on 19th of this month, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Owner of Stars of Nations Schools linked to the owner of Iva Valley bookshop in the NLC were invited to appear on 20th of August in “a case of Criminal Conspiracy, Terrorism Financing, Treasonable Felony, Subversion and Cybercrime” despite that their lawyers requested for more time to visit the police.”

He added that on the “morning of the 21st of August, the home of the owner of Iva Valley Books, Drew Povey, was broken into by a group of police officers”.

He said, “With the ongoing repression, the lives of socialists and human rights activists in Nigeria are under treat and many of them are hidden to avoid arrest and torture by security.

“I call on Nigeria government to end this repression and meet the demands of the protesters. I write to demand the immediate and unconditional release of Adaramoye Michael LENIN, Mosiu Sodiq, Eleojo Opaluwa, Angel Innocent and all other protesters that were illegally detained.

“The regime hasn’t been able to arraign them in court after twenty days in detention. This shows that the regime has no case against them.”