Rights Group Demands Release of 52 Edo Students

By Micheal Chukwuebuka

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has demanded the immediate release of 52 Ambrose Alli University (AAU) students, who were remanded in a correctional facility after a midnight police operation on hostels in Ekpoma, Edo State.

The prominent Nigerian pro-democracy group, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, condemned the arrests as illegal and an act of “state-funded kidnappings.”

The group asserted that the police, acting on the orders of Governor Monday Okpebholo, had no justification under Nigerian law for “forcibly abducting” students from their halls of residence under the “wrongful pretence” of participating in an anti-kidnapping protest.

According to HURIWA, the students were arrested in a late-night raid, causing panic across the university town, and were subsequently charged for involvement in a protest held last Saturday against rising insecurity.

Students speaking to the media said the arrests were coordinated, with officers storming various hostels and picking up individuals indiscriminately in the middle of the night.

“They came to our hostels at night and started arresting students,” one student informed the media from the court premises. “Many of those arrested were sleeping in their rooms and were not even on the streets when the protest took place.”

The students were arraigned on Monday, where police applied for them to be remanded in custody for 14 days.

HURIWA lambasted the “outrageous and atrocious conduct” of the police, citing the refusal to allow journalists to cover the court proceedings as a “grievous violation” of the constitution, which recognises the media’s role.

The rights group dismissed the police charges, including robbery and wilful damage of public property, as “nebulous and mere trumped-up charges” that cannot be sustained.

It stressed that the right to peaceful assembly is guaranteed under Chapter 4 of the Nigerian Constitution and argued that detaining the students was “absolutely unconstitutional and illegal.”

“These students are simply prisoners of conscience and must be immediately released,” HURIWA stated, calling on Governor Okpebholo to intervene.

The organisation argued that the right to protest is a sacrosanct component of a functioning democracy, allowing citizens to express grievances and demand accountability.

It lamented that Nigerian security agencies often respond to peaceful demonstrations with brute force and unlawful arrests—a trend it contrasted with practices in other democracies.

Citing Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution and Article 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, HURIWA recalled the violent response to the 2020 #EndSARS protests as a precedent where such rights were violated with impunity.

HURIWA is therefore demanding the unconditional release of the students and a public apology for their “illegal and arbitrary arrests and detention.” It called on the Edo State Governor to “do the needful,” failing which it urged President Bola Tinubu to order the Inspector General of Police to secure their freedom.

Credit: Stonix News