TheCable

Some civil society organisations (CSOs) have described President Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge to unite Nigeria and free it from ethno-religious crisis, as a façade.

The groups said this in reaction to the detention and trial of Deji Adeyanju, an activist and convener of Concerned Nigerians.

The police had charged Adeyanju with alleged murder, an allegation he was acquitted of years ago.

This was after he had been granted bail on two occasions, on charges bothering on public incitement and criminal defamation.

Adeyanju was first arrested on November 28, 2018, and has since then faced three separate charges, securing bail in two of those charges.

The latest bothering on alleged murder was a case Mohammed Haliru, a judge of the Kano state high court, acquitted and discharged him and three others of in 2009.

At the resumed hearing in December, a magistrate court in Kano said the high court lacked power to hear the charges.

Hassan Fagge the presiding judge, ruled that the activist be remanded in prison till an adjourned date of February 6 for hearing in a higher court.

Commenting on his detention, the groups, Free Nigeria Movement, MadConnect and Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy andConstitution, said the latest development “has now validated our suspicion that Buhari is on a personal mission to victimise, persecute and silence Deji Adeyanju.”

The groups accused the president of fanning the embers of ethno-religious discrimination, asking why Adeyanju is the only one of the three others, being re-tried.

“While the Buhari government and Police have in flagrant violation of our laws chosen to embark on this fruitless voyage of illegal discovery, we are shocked by their recoil into ethno-religious biases and vendetta, persecuting only Deji Adeyanju – the only Yoruba-Christian in a group of four persons that include three Hausa-Fulanis, that were discharged and acquitted,” the groups said in a statement.

“It is, therefore, unfortunate that while the present regime of General Buhari continues to give a false impression – to Nigerians and especially the international community – that it is committed to a united Nigeria that is free of ethnic bigotry and intolerance, its actions and pronouncements, however, especially as it relates to respect for human rights and dissenting voices, have proved otherwise.

“Again, we wish to forewarn all well-meaning Nigerians, within and without the country, that as gathered through veritable sources within the incumbent government of General Buhari, there is an active plot to foist a strange agenda on the nation and silence dissenting voices; and the ultimate goal of this plot is to plunge Nigeria into a full-fledged dictatorship and ethno-religious fascism.”