MRA Condemns Seizure of Copies of Human Rights Report
LAGOS, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23,
2002: Media
Rights Agenda (MRA) is concerned that the Federal Government is resorting
to the repressive tactics of military dictatorships with the seizure by
officials of the Nigerian Customs Service of copies of a human rights
report jointly published by the Lagos-based Centre for Law Enforcement
Education (CLEEN) and the Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture
(OMCT).
Copies of the book, Hope
Betrayed? A Report on Impunity and State-sponsored Violence in
Nigeria,
which were printed in Geneva, Switzerland, were being shipped to Nigeria
when they were seized by Nigerian Custom officials at the Murtala Muhammed
Airport in Lagos on the ground that the book has “political undertones”.
The book details various ethnic violence in Nigeria that
have claimed thousands of lives and led to the destruction of properties
worth millions of naira during the first three years of the present
administration.
The clearing agents, Panalpina
Limited, informed CLEEN’s Executive Director, Mr. Innocent Chukwuma, of
the seizure in a letter, explaining that the custom officials said they
required clearance from the Controller General of Customs in Abuja before
the seized copies can be released.
Media Rights Agenda fails to
understand the rationale for the action of the government’s agents,
especially since the book had previously been launched in Lagos.
We condemn the seizure of the
books as a violation of the right to freedom of expression guaranteed in
Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution and various international human rights
instruments to which Nigeria is a signatory, including the Article 19 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 9 of the African
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
We therefore call for the
immediate and unconditional release of the seized copies and urge the
government to tread the path of constitutionalism.
For further information, please contact:
Ayode Longe
Programme Officer
Tel: 01-4819162
E-mail:
pubs@mediarightsagenda.org
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