#EndSARS: PDP urges US, UK, France to sanction Nigerian govt officials for rights violations

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday commended members of the British Parliament for standing on the side of ordinary Nigerians during last month’s #EndSARS protests in the country.

The party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, also praised the British government for considering possible sanctions against individual or group of people behind human rights breaches during the campaign against police brutality in Nigeria.

The British MPs met on Monday to look at the request for sanctions against Nigeria for rights infringement during the protest.

However, the parliament said it would make a definite position on the matter at the end of investigation and reports by the judicial panels of inquiry currently sitting across some states of the federation.

In the statement, PDP urged the United Nations and other international bodies to immediately move against the Federal Government officials that were allegedly involved in the violence that trailed the protests, particularly in Lagos.

The statement read: “Our party urges the British government to extend the proposed sanctions to include the freezing of assets and funds belonging to such officials and their families in the United Kingdom.

“We also call on other countries, including the United States, France, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa among others to impose sanctions against indicted officials of the Buhari administration for human rights violations and crime against humanity. Such sanctions should also be imposed on officials indicted for undermining our democracy and electoral system.

READ ALSO: #EndSARS: British MPs to deliberate on request for sanction against Nigeria Monday

“The international community must call out President Buhari, as the buck stops on his table, as the commander-in-chief, under whose watch, human rights violations including arbitrary arrests and detention in dehumanizing facilities, widespread extrajudicial killings, sudden disappearances of dissenting voices, disregard to rule of law, disobedience to court orders and foisting of siege mentality on the citizenry, have become the order of the day.

“Indeed, the manifest use of brute force, including the deployment of the military with live ammunition, in addition to recruiting of armed thugs to attack and kill innocent Nigerian youths, who were in a peaceful demonstration against widespread police brutality and other systemic injustices, underscores the horrible situation in Nigeria under President Buhari as detailed in earlier reports by Amnesty International and the US Department of State among other international bodies.

“Is it not frightening that the Buhari presidency has failed to come clean on who ordered the deployment of troops to Lekki tollgate in Lagos, where unarmed demonstrators were allegedly shot and killed even while waving our national flag and singing our nation’s anthem?

“Is it not equally frightening that the government has also failed to explain how armed thugs were seen being brought in security vans to unleash violence on demonstrators in Abuja and other parts of our country?”

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