A peaceful protest at the National Human Rights Commissions (NHRC) against the killing of Nigerians during the February 23 presidential election has been staged by the Civil Society Organisations under the aegis of Save Democracy Group. The protesters, who are mainly women, besieged the headquarters of the commission on Wednesday in Abuja wielding placards with various inscriptions to convey their message to the world.

Speaking on behalf of the group, the convener, May Ubeku, said they were protesting against the senseless killings of voters by the Nigerian military during the election. “We are here for a singular reason. Last Saturday’s election, we believe it was a total charade. Categorically, the President said that he would deploy military for the election. This is against our constitution because there are three court judgements of Federal High Court in Lagos, Sokoto and Abuja that the President lacks power to deploy the military to supervise a democratic election.”

Ubeku stressed that Nigeria is not at war and there is no basis for military presence during election. She expressed shock at the brutality and harassment of innocent Nigerians who came out to exercise their franchise by the army. However, she asked the President to play the game by the rules, not to send military during the governorship election to prevent another bloodshed.

The protest convener also urged the human rights body to come out of their comfort zone and protect Nigerians from the jack boot army who are killing harmless citizens. “The human rights cannot be here and army are killing our people. We want this killing to be investigated by the human rights commission and we are also using this opportunity to tell Mr. President, you cannot claim you have integrity when you cannot obey court judgement,” Ubeku noted.

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Responding on behalf of the human rights commission, Director of External Linkages, Lambart Opara, said the commission had been working round the clock in monitoring of the election. He assured the protesters that all the allegations raised in the petition would be thoroughly investigated. What do you think of this protest? Will there be a headway? Share your thoughts about the matter in the comments section.