The British National, Drew Povey has been charged of inciting insurrection against the Tinubu-led government has asked the Nigerian government not to treat protests as treason.
Povey, whom the Nigerian government said also bears the name Andrew Wynne, was reacting to the government’s allegation of building “a network of sleeper cells to topple the Bola Tinubu administration and plunge the nation into chaos.”
The government raided and sealed his bookshop located at the Abuja headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
‘Protest Is Not Treason’ – Briton Charged Of Plotting Against President Tinubu’s Government Reacts
Earlier today September 2, the FG arraigned ten Nigerians who participated in last month’s #EndBadGovernance protest in Abuja. Part of the charges against them was that they collaborated with the 70-year-old Briton, “with intent to destabilize Nigeria, call on the military to take over the government from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.” In his statement written on the letterhead of his bookshop, Mr Povey asked the government to release the detainees.“The mass protests over #EndBadGovernance and #EndHunger frightened the government. But rather than addressing the people’s demands, the government turned to repression” he said Read Mr Povey’s full statement below.PROTEST IS NOT TREASON – release all the detainees! The mass protests over #EndBadGovernance and #EndHunger frightened the government. But rather than addressing the peoples’ demands, the government turned to repression. Perhaps 40 people were murdered by the police and other the security forces, thousands were arrested and many still remain in captivity. In Abuja, the authorities have attacked the so called leaders and organisers of the protests. Ten people face ridiculous charges including treason, mutiny and levying war against the state. The NLC promised a general strike to protect its President, Joe Ajaero, from arrest and detention in relation to similar charges. Despite the flimsy nature of the evidence against the detainees, they face long years in prison unless the trade union movement is prepared to protect them. On 7th August the NLC said it, “condemns in the strongest terms the human rights violations perpetrated by security forces against peaceful protesters.” The first person to be arrested in this case was Eleojo Opaluwa. He is a former colleague of Joe Ajaero, working for NUEE, the electricians union, as an organiser in Abuja. He is also the Vice Chair of the NLC in Kogi State. He has now been detained for over 4 weeks with no tangible evidence. His family was told that he had received a WhatsApp message from one of the other alleged leaders. This was after Eleojo had actually been detained. The ten detainees have been accused of conspiracy to commit a range of serious crimes.
However, they barely know each other. Five of them may have been members of a WhatsApp group set up to organise the protests in Abuja. But the other five are unknown to these comrades. They may be a few of the flag waving protesters from Kano who were added to extend the range of the organizers to cover the main protests from Sokoto to Maiduguri There appears to be a conflict between the government and the police investigating this case. The head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) told the detainees’ lawyers that he would have released them, but that he had orders from above not to set them free. So the police have developed what appears to be a ridiculous case involving the owner of Iva Valley Books.
The British National, Drew Povey, accused of inciting insurrection against the Tinubu-led government has has asked the Nigerian government not to treat protests as treason.
Povey, whom the Nigerian government said also bears the name Andrew Wynne, was reacting to the government’s allegation of building “a network of sleeper cells to topple the Bola Tinubu administration and plunge the nation into chaos.”
