Ime Akpan
The national secretariat of theCivil Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Nigeria has expressed deep concern about the violation of the rights of its mobilisation officer, Mr Michael Obokhale
The organisation expressed its displeasure with the action and inaction of the Nigerian state on the matter in a release jointly signed by its president/board chairman, Mr Igho Akeregha and the deputy executive director, Mr Princewill Akpakpan and sent to NewsGazette in Lagos.
According to the statement, Obokhale “has been severally brutalised, tortured and abused by political thugs, hired touts, overzealous security agents and other agents of oppression.
Consequently, the organisation appealed to the Canadian authorities to offer protection to Obokhale who, according to it (CLO), resides in that North American country.
The organisation disclosed that Obokhale had suffered several abuses “in the past three years without the authorities taking proactive and preventive steps to abate the conditions of the victim or bring the perpetrators to justice.
“CLO strongly condemns these abuses and inhuman/degrading treatment in very unambiguous terms and calls on the Government to stop these violations and hereby makes the following clarifications:
“Comrade Obokhale has been a trusting, dependable staff as the human rights mobilization officer in charge of Ifako-Ijaiye federal constituency in Lagos State. His duties involved, but not restricted to monitoring, investigating and documentation of human rights abuses/violation and monitoring of elections/electoral processes in the assigned area amongst other duties.
“Following series of threats to his life and risks associated with the assigned tasks, the CLO was compelled to alternate his locations to prevent him from harm’s way after clear cases of attempts on his life by hired political thugs and compromised security agents.
“Obokhale had been severally molested, beaten and incarcerated by the police, agents of the Department of State services, DSS and other security agencies in Nigeria as a result of his unwavering commitment to the documentation and exposure of cases of human rights abuses and violations by law enforcement agencies and political thugs of government,” it said.
The organisation recalled how Obokhale was arrested and detained at the Agege Police Station in Lagos for over four months in 2020 “under the most humiliating and degrading conditions without the knowledge of the CLO.”
“The CLO secretariat was deeply disturbed and worried about his whereabouts and contacted various Radio and Television Stations in search of him.
“The CLO attempted to file a fundamental human rights enforcement application at the High Court in Lagos but was frustrated as we were not able to ascertain whether he was dead or alive; where he was arrested; where he was detained or which of the security agents or kidnappers detained him.
“Happily for the CLO, we got to know that he was alive when the ENDSARS protests rocked Lagos in 2020 wherein the protesters broke into Agege Police station, set the station ablaze and released all the inmates. It was during this period that he escaped from the dungeon of illegal and degrading custody.
“A committee of the CLO had to follow up on his case after his ordeal and made efforts to ensure that he was properly rehabilitated given his long detention where he was held incommunicado and denied access to his lawyers and family.
“Our further inquiry later revealed that he was interested in furthering his studies abroad.
“He applied for Canadian visa and was successful but another incident struck at the temporary abode where he lived with his friend, Mr. Matthew. He had to disclose the real threat he faced and the numerous cases of clear and present danger to his life posed mostly by security agents and political thugs who trailed him.
“Tragedy struck when the residence of Mr. Matthew at Ojodu Lagos was attacked by unknown persons. After the attack efforts to locate Mr. Obokhale who was not in the house at the time of the attack was unsuccessful.
“Since he could not be found, one Mr. Ehime, a brother to Mr. Matthew who was kidnapped during the attack was later found to be held by his abductors who demanded that a ransom must be paid for his release as they were furious that Comrade Obokhale escaped.
“Consequently, part of the money for the payment for Comrade Obokhale’s school fees in Canada was used to pay the kidnappers’ ransom demand.
“The CLO is aware of Comrade Obokhale’s travails and the fact that he is now in Canada. It is our candid and sincere position that as a human rights organisation defending the poor, the defenceless and the vulnerable groups in Nigeria, we appeal that the Canadian government grant Comrade Obokhale protection.
“This could be in the form of granting him a temporary stay or any other legitimate means to protect him from being repatriated to Nigeria.
“As an organisation, we do not have any security apparatus that can protect him as all security platforms are under the control of government. We sincerely appreciate the potentials and the patriotic contributions of Comrade Obokhale and his work while he was in Nigeria.”
The CLO expressed confidence that the “international exposure in Canada will bring to the fore Obokhale’s “overall performance when he completes his studies and returns home under a safe government.”
