Arrest those behind death threats to Falana’s daughter, group tasks Police, DSS

The Nigerian Human Rights Community, (NIHRCO), on Friday, urged President Bola Tinubu to order the security agencies to fish out those responsible for the death threats issued to a daughter of prominent human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana.

In a statement issued by Taiwo Adeleye,  NIHRCO described the threats as a ‘historical challenge’ to Nigeria, urging the President to be on top of the situation and provide leadership in fishing out those responsible for that.

The group said Nigerians expected that by now, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Kayode Egbetokun and the Department of State Services (DSS) would have made some arrest, since the threat was meant to deter Mr. Falana from appearing in court against an individual.

The rights groups urged Nigerians to be weary of common criminals and rogues portraying themselves as defenders of helpless Nigerians.

It said many of them are professional blackmailers working as conscious state agents.

“The Nigerian Human Rights Community stands with Mr. Falana at this moment. Threat to death was sent to his daughter by common criminals.

“The sender(s) provided clues by using a cellphone to send the message. Phone numbers cannot be registered in Nigeria without NIN. It means the identities of the criminals should not be difficult to unveil,’ the rights group said.

The group described Falana as a ‘storming icon’ whose contributions to human rights struggle span over four decades.

“It is difficult to quantify the contributions of Mr. Falana to democracy and human rights in Nigeria. While he was in the trenches, fighting the military, at the risk of his life, some of those in power today were collaborators who made profit from supporting military dictatorship,” the group added.

The group described those behind the threat message as cowards driven by violent instinct without any justification.

“Nigerians know those to hold responsible if anything happens to Mr. Falana or any member of his family. Any attack on Mr. Falana is an attack on the civil rights movement in Nigeria. This is the time to find out who is responsible for the threat message. This is a big challenge for President Tinubu. It is a challenge he must resolve. Nigerians want to know the vagabonds responsible for sending the threat message,” NIHRCO said.

Falana had disclosed that one of this daughters received death threats from anonymous person(s) with a message that his daughter would be harmed if Falana proceeded with litigation against a social media figure, Mr. Martins Otse, who released an audio few weeks ago where he made spurious claims against the human rights activist.