The Brutalisation and Detention of Activists- Victor Anene & Larry Emanuel

The Coalition for Revolution (CORE) categorically condemns the arrest, brutalisation, and detention of Victor Anene & Larry Emmanuel at Lokoja, Kogi state on Wednesday 6^th April. The two RevolutionNow activists who are members of a CORE affiliate were molested and brutalized by a ragtag body of lumpen youths who then handed them over to the police which arrested and tortured them further, for expressing their right to dissent in any part of Nigeria.

It is particularly shocking that one of the shameless youths who accosted them and ordered that they be flogged, described their coming to Kogi state as if they were undocumented migrants. Apart from the fact that CORE does not consider any migrant “illegal”, it is particularly appalling that these Nigerian citizens who live in the neighbouring Federal Capital Territory were abused for being strangers within the federal republic of Nigeria!

This Is totally unacceptable. Freedom of expression is nothing without respect for the right to dissent. The two youths were pasting “Buhari Must Go” posters. This demand is one which has found echo in the hearts of millions of Nigerians, including in Kogi state. The regime of Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and his APC government is anti-poor people and represents only a handful of superrich people in power and business.

While 70% of the Nigerian population cannot access basic health services, General Buhari continues with his annual junketing to London for medical treatment at taxpayers’ expense. The poverty rate has skyrocketed under his watch, with Nigeria now being the poverty capital of the world. The official unemployment rate has risen to 33.3% from 27.1% in just three months. This means the unemployment rate has quadrupled since the APC regime came into power. And as a recent Financial Times of Britain’s report noted “Nigeria’s graduates live ‘hand to mouth’ as job crisis worsens”.