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Nigerian police and officials of the State Security Service (SSS) Wednesday sealed off the venue chosen in Abuja to launch a book on the recently sacked boss of the state-backed human rights agency.
The government last month removed Buhari Bello as the executive secretary of the National Human Rights Commission and redeployed him to the federal justice ministry, a decision slammed by the human rights community as vindictive.
The book launch, advertised in the media, was organised by human rights groups.
A report entitled: "The People versus The Federal Attorney-General" was to be presented by the Nigerian human rights community to highlight the politics within the agency which led to the removal of Bello.
About a dozen armed security agents came in advance to the hotel where the presentation was due to take place, sealed off the conference hall and turned back the organisers and the guests, including students who almost clashed with police.
"They do not have a permit to hold any gathering," the head of the police team Femi Ogunbayode told reporters.
The organisers said in a statement that they intended to highlight the role of the justice minister "in recent threats to the independence of Nigerias National Human Rights Commission and associated deterioration of human rights practice in Nigeria."
"The unlawful and forceful dispersal of the Peoples Tribunal, vindicates the growing fears within and outside the (human rights) community that the federal government is now fully committed to subverting the protection of human and constitutional rights in Nigeria," the statement said.
Bello was appointed last year for a second five-year term until he was sent back to the ministry last month by Justice Minister Bayo Ojo for reasons not initially disclosed.
A week after Bello's removal, Ojo said that Bello was removed "to pave the way for the reorganisation of the commission and to allow for an investigation into some alleged financial malpractices in the commission."
Ojo is immediate past president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the umbrella union of lawyers, critical of human rights violations in the country.
The NBA recently boycotted the courts to denounce alleged human rights abuses and violation of court orders by government.
ola-ade/boc
Nigeria-rights
AFP 121833 GMT 07 06
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