The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olumide Akpata, and an advocacy group, Access to Justice, have expressed displeasure over the suppression of EndSARS promoters by the Nigerian government.
The NBA president, in a post on his Facebook page, stated that the actions of the government were contrary to its earlier disposition.
He stated that: “With all that’s going on in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests, lawyers are definitely not smiling! @djswitch_ has gone into hiding after receiving threatening phone calls, Moe Odele’s passport was seized and she has been prevented from travelling outside the country and Rinu Oduala and many others have had their accounts frozen by the CBN…this was not the deal.”
Also, an advocacy group Access to Justice has equally condemned the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to freeze the bank accounts of 20 of the protest leaders.
In a statement yesterday by its Convener, Mr. Joseph Otteh, the group described the freezing of the accounts of the #EndSARS protest leaders without a court order as an illegality.
“The CBN is transforming into a partisan political organ of the government and putting its vast regulatory powers into illicit partisan political uses for the purpose of suppressing the legitimate exercise of constitutional rights of freedom of speech and expression. This is appalling for a Central Bank for many reasons,” A2Justice said.
The organisation also expressed its disappointment in Justice A.R. Mohammed for agreeing to issue an order freezing the accounts without hearing from the protesters.
“Asking those caught and crippled by the order to apply to court for review after the order was made is like medicine after death. They ought to have been heard in the first place before the order was made!” the group said
