The Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP) has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Lagos-based lawyer, Malcolm Omirhobo, who was arrested on Wednesday by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Omirhobo was arrested at the Presidential Villa gate in Abuja by the DSS operatives while on a one man protest against the massacre of 43 rice farmers in Zabarmari, Borno state last Saturday.
In a tweet on its official handle on Wednesday, SERAP wrote: “We urge President Buhari to instruct the DSS to immediately and unconditionally release activist Malcolm Omirhobo, reportedly arrested today at the Presidential Villa gate in Abuja while carrying out a “one-man protest” against the killing of farmers in Borno State.”
The lawyer and activist who arrived the gate about 9a.m dressed in a customised T-shirt with the inscriptions “Stop the Genocide,” on the front and “Halt the Genocide,” at the back, was stopped by policemen attached to the gate near the Federal Secretariat as he headed towards the Villa.
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He was still discussing with the police officers who asked him to write a formal letter if he wanted audience with President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of insecurity in the country when the DSS arrived and swooped on him.
Addressing journalists before his arrest by the DSS operatives, Omirhobo said he had come to the Villa to protest peacefully the institutionalised and systemic genocide ongoing in Nigeria.
He said he was at the villa to tell Buhari that “Enough is Enough. He should stop playing the Ostrich because the government is backing all the evils perpetrated by these evil people killing innocents and Harmless Nigerians.”