Three days ago, protesters stormed the Abuja office of Amnesty International, AI, demanding that the international organisation leave Nigeria within the next 24 hours.
The protesters threatened that if Amnesty International does not shut down its operations in Nigeria and leave the country within the stipulated time, the protesters will begin a Five-Day Occupy Amnesty International Protest as a first warning.
The protest was held in reaction to the 2017 report Amnesty International released in which it accused Nigerian security agencies of human rights abuse against suspected Boko Haram members, IPOB members, among others.
The protesters, led by Executive Director Global Peace and Rescue Initiative( GOPRI), Comrade Melvin Ejeh said the report by AI was a deliberate attempt by the Amnesty International to indict the security agencies working day and night to restore peace in troubled parts of the country without condemning the heinous crimes committed by Boko Haram terrorists and that it proves that the international organisation has ulterior motives.
Two days after the protest, reports have now emerged that the protesters do not represent Civil Society groups in Nigeria and were actually "a group of rented crowd". A coalition of civil society organisations condemned the protest and issued a joint statement today signed by representatives of 40 Civil Society Organisations in which they referred to the group describing themselves as GOPRI as an “unknown group.”
According to reports by ICiR, the statement pointed out that GOPRI “made no attempt to fault the factual accuracy or validity of any of the reports by Amnesty (but) simply claims that Amnesty is trying to smear the image of the country.”
“We believe that if anyone or group has any objections to any of the reports by AI, the most reasonable approach to address such objections is to provide alternative facts or information to debunk the disagreeable or contentious issue in the report. This has not happened,” the statement read.
We wish to state unequivocally that neither the group ‘Global Peace and Rescue Initiative (GOPRI)’ nor its leader is a known entity within the Nigerian civil society community.
We have no iota of doubt that the protest the group has embarked on is procured and orchestrated. Members of the group have been paid to do the hatchet job for cowards in high places who are uncomfortable with the hard facts and truths contained in the evidence-based reports by AI.
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“We, as leaders and members of recognized and recognizable civil society organizations in Nigeria with track records here
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