Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola’s penchant to
deport alleged destitute and beggars from Lagos streets to other Nigerian
states has been described as a modern-day apartheid policy reminiscent of the
discredited and defunct South African white supremacist policy.
Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA)
which made the observation said that the governor’s action must be condemned
strongly by all well meaning citizens of Nigeria.
HURIWA was reacting to reports has that agents of the
Lagos State Government arrested and forcibly dumped alleged destitute numbering
about 70 in Onitsha, Anambra State.
“The expelled destitute told journalists on July 24th
2013 that they were dumped about 3am at Upper Iweka near the overhead Bridge in
Onitsha, Anambra state after being detained in Ikorodu, Lagos, for over six
months for alleged wandering and other minor offences by the Lagos State Kick
Against Indiscipline officials. The destitute said they were brought to Onitsha
in four buses, escorted by riot policemen,” HURIWA said, adding:
“One of them, Mr. Osondu Mbuto, from Ohaozara in Ebonyi
State and a petty trader in Lagos, told journalists that he was arrested by the
Lagos State Government officials while going to his shop on December 18, 2012.”
According to HURIWA, “The atrocious and discriminatory
action of the Lagos State government by expelling poor people out of Lagos
streets to other states within the Federation of Nigeria violates relevant
sections of the nation’s Constitution enshrined in chapter four (as amended).”
It accused Fashola of displaying “an overbearing/overwhelming aversion for poor
struggling Nigerians trying to make a living in the increasingly difficult
Nigerian business terrain.”
HURIWA in a statement signed by its National Coordinator,
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab
Yusuf, asked the Lagos State Governor “to stop forthwith the enforcement of
apartheid type discriminatory policies against the poor but to deploy public
fund towards implementing workable and fool proof measures to positively
transform those identified as homeless persons to become productive and useful
members of the society.”
HURIWA said thus: “We received with incredible
trepidation, the recent report that dozens of alleged beggars and persons who
are clearly poor and homeless being dumped in the River Niger Head bridge in
Onitsha Anambra State by agents of the Lagos state government in the wee and
ungodly hours of the night protected in their shameless action by armed police
operatives who are paid with tax payers’ money.
“HURIWA therefore views this atrocious act of the Lagos
state government in active conspiracy with the Nigerian Police Force as vicious
crime against humanity and flagrant violation of sections 34(1); 41(1); and
42(1) of the Nigerian constitution of 1999 [as amended] which clearly outlaws
discrimination and guarantees freedom of movement and Rights to dignity of
human persons as sacrosanct; universal; inviolable and inherent.
“The Lagos State Governor must be told that he has no
right to expel any Nigerian to another part of Nigeria since the supreme body
of law provides that ‘Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely
throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof and no citizen of Nigeria
shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereto or exit therefrom’, and
as a lawyer the governor of Lagos state must respect the tenets and spirit of
the Nigerian constitution.
“HURIWA therefore asks the Lagos State Government to
reverse this inhuman policy and pay the necessary compensation for these grave
breaches of the fundamental human rights of these Nigerians.”
www.osundefender.org
July 29,
2013.
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