THE President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olumide Akpata, has expressed displeasure at the clampdown by government on the leaders of the #EndSARS protesters.
This was as advocacy group, Access to Justice, condemned the freezing of the bank accounts of 20 of the protest leaders by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The NBA president, in a post on his Facebook page, said the actions of the government were contrary to its earlier disposition.
Akpata wrote, “With all that’s going on in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests, lawyers are definitely not smiling! @djswitch_ has gone into hiding after receiving threatening phone calls, Moe Odele’s passport was seized and she has been prevented from travelling outside the country and Rinu Oduala and many others have had their accounts frozen by the CBN…this was not the deal.”
Access to Justice, in a statement on Sunday by its Convener, Joseph Otteh, described the freezing of the accounts of the #EndSARS protest leaders without a court order as an illegality.
“The CBN is transforming into a partisan political organ of the government and putting its vast regulatory powers into illicit partisan political uses for the purpose of suppressing the legitimate exercise of constitutional rights of freedom of speech and expression. This is appalling for a Central Bank for many reasons,” A2Justice said.
