Parliamentarians of the United Kingdom Parliament on Monday condemned the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, for its attack and intimidation of protesters who took part in the #EndSARS protests.
The parliamentarians demanded sanctions on government officials and security agents such as visa ban, freezing of assets and stopping the funding and training for the Nigeria Police Force.
The lawmakers’ debate was sequel to a petition started by Silas Ojo, which had garnered over 200,000 signatures.
The debate by members of the Petition Committee took place at the Westminster Hall. It took off with Theresa Villiers, a member of the British Conservative Party, who served as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2019 to 2020.
Parliamentarian from Chipping Barnet Constituency said, “I believe the petitioners have a credible case for the imposition of individualized sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes.”
She added that the UK Government must explain the role of the government in training security agents who ended up abusing the rights of Nigerian citizens.
Also speaking, Edmonton MP, Kate Omamor, described the claimed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that the killings at the Lekki toll plaza was fake news, it is undemocratic.
Osamor stated, “The Nigerian government says that it has disbanded SARS but the corruption and brutality of the security forces continues. The Nigerian government’s violence against its own citizens appears only to be intensifying.
“The Nigerian government needs to stop freezing bank accounts of key protesters; it needs to stop illegal detentions of key protesters. The Minister of Information for the Federal Government went on record to state that the CNN reporting of the massacre is fake news. This is undemocratic conduct.”
Osamor noted that the UK government continued to sell weapons and provide training to SARS personnel despite the fact that Amnesty International and other rights groups had accused the now disbanded unit of extra-judicial killings.
Parliamentarian from West Ham, Lyn Brown, said it was unfortunate that the Federal Government went ahead to not only accused protesters of sponsoring terrorism and freezing their accounts but also blamed them for the increase in food prices.
Responding on behalf of the UK government, the MP for Aldridge-Brownhills, Wendy Morton, who doubled as the Minister for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said the reports of intimidation of #EndSARS protesters were worrying.
Morton added that the UK government was communicating with the President’s Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, and Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
He said, “It is a long-standing practice not to speculate on future sanctions as it could reduce the impact of the designations,”
“We are aware that some protesters have reported facing intimidation and the British High Commissioner in Abuja continues to raise our concerns about intimidation of civil society groups and peaceful protesters with the Nigerian government.”
