A human right watch, Lawyers Alert has made a case for citizens’ rights as enshrined in the nation’s constitution.
The group engaged media practitioners in a one day symposium recently in Makurdi. It educated them on forms of human right abuses and tasked journalists to assist in exposing cases of human rights abuses across the country and the state in particular with a view to appealing to security agencies and government at all levels to protect the sanctity of human rights.
In a presentation christened “Increasing Civic and Freedom of Peaceful Assembly in Nigeria”, one of the facilitators, Mr. Lazarus Mom decried continued violation of peaceful assembly and other forms of human right abuses in the country where citizens are intimidated, harassed and prevented from organising themselves to express their concerns on issues affecting them.
According to Mr. Mom, since citizens’ rights have already been enshrined in the nation’s constitution, there was no basis for the citizens to be restricted from organising themselves with the intention of peacefully articulating their positions on issues that affect them provided it does not constitute security threat.
The human rights watch lamented that even in advanced democracies, the citizens’ right for peaceful assembly and other forms of human right abuses are always meted out to citizens. He appealed to media practitioners to be always in the vanguard of writing against such practices.
He asserted that when the local and international legal instruments are guaranteed, the rights of citizens will always be respected.
