President Bola Tinubu has been called by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to immediately order the Nigerian Department of State Services (DSS) to stop intimidating, harassing, and attacking its organisation. Additionally, the DSS has been threatening to arrest directors.

In the meantime, the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, or NLC, has demanded that the DSS immediately free National President Joe Ajaero of the NLC and end the persecution and witch-hunting of Labour leadership across the board.

On Monday, a few DSS officers broke into the SERAP office in Abuja. “A tall, huge, dark-skinned woman and her thin, dark-skinned companion came into our office.

Two unmarked cars parked outside our office were seen to contain additional officers. The organisation asserted that the authorities who questioned our office want to see our directors.

Calls for President Tinubu and his administration to order the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, or NNPCL, to immediately undo the ostensibly unlawful and unconstitutional rise in the

SERAP condemned the DSS’s incursion of its Abuja office today, according to a statement released by the organisation on Monday and signed by Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare.

“The DSS must be immediately instructed by the Tinubu administration to stop intimidating and harassing SERAP and our staff members.”

Femi Falana, a human rights attorney and prominent Nigerian advocate, stated: “We denounce the incursion into SERAP’s premises. The officials who invaded SERAP’s office in the name of the government need to be apprehended by the Tinubu government immediately.

“The DSS’s invasion of SERAP’s office and the harassment and intimidation of our staff members is a brutal assault on the entire human rights community in the country,” stated SERAP in part of their statement.

The intensifying crackdown on human rights, along with the intimidation and harassment of NGOs and human rights defenders who have displayed incredible bravery in their work, harm the most vulnerable, impede the ability of Nigerian victims of abuses and violations of human rights to seek justice, and foster an environment where offenders go unpunished.

Human rights advocates and members of civil society organisations must get assistance and protection from this government.

“We take the increasing limitations on public space and the harsh suppression of Nigerians’ human rights very seriously.

President Tinubu needs to give the necessary authorities immediate instructions to look into the invasion of our offices in detail and to prosecute those responsible.

“SERAP’s mandates, as recognised by the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Nigeria is a state party, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, must be freely carried out by Nigerian authorities.”

“The attacks of intimidation and harassment against SERAP must stop, and the safety and security of our employees must be guaranteed by Nigerian authorities.”

“SERAP will take appropriate legal action both nationally and internationally to challenge the brutal crackdown and hold the authorities accountable for their constitutional and international human rights obligations if the Tinubu government does not take all necessary steps to immediately end the intimidation and harassment of SERAP or any other civil society groups for that matter.

“SERAP will keep up its efforts to oppose any attempt to limit, muzzle, or eradicate the nation’s legitimate civil society organisations’ voices.

We implore the president to take a firm stance against SERAP and our staff members’ intimidation and harassment.

Everyone whose rights are violated has the right to an appropriate remedy under both international human rights law and the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended). The level of security that civil society organisations and human rights defenders experience is a major factor in their ability to reveal abuses of human rights and pursue remedies for them.

Lagos NLC responds

“We received the news of the NLC President Joe Ajaero’s arrest this morning (Mondat) with shock and disappointment for the kind of humiliating treatment being meted out to NLC President,” said comrade Agnes Funmi Sessi, chairman of the Lagos NLC chapter, in a statement on Monday.

“Ajaero is a product of his environment.”

Apart from the youth, organised labour is the only sizable organisation that has the power to pressure the government into adopting agenda- and people-oriented policies, and as such, he is seen as an enemy of the state.

“He accepted the police’s invitation to be questioned and came in. By inviting him, DSS should have shown professionalism in their approach and duties, and he would undoubtedly accept.

We remain steadfast and will carry on the struggles for not only the welfare of the workers but also call out the government and denounce any anti-people policies after. “We are indeed pained and unhappy with this witch-hunting of Labour Leadership by trying to hang a crime on their neck all in an attempt to silence the group,” the statement reads.

The NLC, on behalf of all workers, now demands that the DSS immediately release Ajaero and cease harassing and persecuting Labour leadership at all levels.

“How to lead right and save the country from the impending economic collapse should be the government’s top priority and focus,”