Committee For The Defence Of Human Rights Condemns Lagos State Deportations

In a press release obtained by Sahara Reporters today, the Committee
for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) in Lagos, Nigeria has condemned
the actions of Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola and the
Lagos State government following the deportation exercise of July
24th, 2013. The document also demands a public apology and additional
compensation for the displaced Igbos.
The measure, the second in less than a year, moved over 70 Igbo
destitutes from detention centers in Lagos, by truck, to the Upper
Iweka bridge in Onitsha, Anambra State where they were abandoned in
the middle of the night.
The report states: "without any reservation the CDHR see such an act
as highly misguided and violate the express provision of certain
sections of the Nigerian constitution. Ultimately, such action
constitute an infringement on certain fundamental human rights of
those involved pursuant to Section IV of the Nigeria constitution, the
African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, and the United Nations
Universal Declaration on Human Rights."
The document warns that the precedence set by the deportation
decisionbears the danger of precipitating a civil conflict in Nigeria.
"Fashola's action is merely a class war against the ordinary people
within the society", it furthers.