By Ameh Ejekwonyilo
Protesters for the abducted schoolgirls of Government Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno state yesterday dragged the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Commissioner, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, before an FCT High Court over the ban he placed on protests and rallies in Abuja.
Mbu was dragged before the court by a group, the “Women for Peace and Justice,” led by former Minister of Education, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, seeking enforcement of their fundamental right to peaceful assembly and association.
In the suit filed by Mr. Femi Falana, they applied for the enforcement of their right to freedom of expression and assembly as guaranteed by Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution and Articles 8,10 and 11 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
Plaintiffs in the case are Hadiza Bala Usman, Mr. Samuel Yaga, Mrs Rebecca Samuel Yaga, Mrs Sarah Ishaya, Mallam Dunama Mpur Lawan Abana, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, Dauda Iliya, Kabiku Area Development Association (KADA), and Saudatu Mahdi.
The rest are Obiageli Ezekwesili, Maryam Uwais, Bashir Ibrahim Yusuf, Jibrin Ibrahim, Bukky Shonibare, Rotimi Olawale, and Florence Ozor.
In their originating summon, they asked the high court to declare the ban placed on protests and rallies in Abuja by the police on Monday as illegal, un-constitutional, null and void “as it violates their rights to freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association.”
They also urged the court to declare that Mbu was not competent in law to ban protests and rallies in the FCT in any manner without an order of a competent court.
They also asked for a sum of N200 million as damages for the violation of their rights to freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association as occasioned by the stoppage of their rally in sympathy with the abducted school girls.
No date has been fixed for hearing of the case.
