Nnimmo Bassey discusses the Cochabamba-Copenhagen divide on Democracy Now outside “The Most Important Event in the Struggle Against Climate Change,” the World People’s Climate Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

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Photo credit: Kendra E. Thornbury for Sweet Crude

After his assault and arbitrary detention on April 5, Asume Osuoka reported the following incident, which he says “may or may not be linked to” those events:

“On Wednesday 7 April I was held by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) for an hour and half at the Port Harcourt International Airport as I was trying to check into an Air France flight out of Nigeria. SSS officials searched my bags and picked out copies of publications of Social Action and Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform including

• Beyond Amnesty: Citizens Report on State and Local Government Budgets in the Niger Delta, 2009
• Carry Go: Citizens Report on State and Local Government Budgets in the Niger Delta, 2008
• Fuelling Discord: Oil and Conflict in Three Niger Delta Communities
• Communities and the Petroleum Industries Bill
• Flames of Hell: Gas Flaring in the Niger Delta

I was taken to the Director of the SSS at the airport who insisted that I don’t travel with the reports, which portrays the country in bad light and would “discourage foreign investors”. I responded that those portraying the country in bad light are the leaders of the ruling PDP that loot public funds and prevent free elections.

I told the SSS director that I would prefer to be arrested than to travel without my literature. After long discussions the SSS requested for assurance from me that copies would be sent to them for “analysis”. I later invited my colleague Ken Henshaw (who accompanied me to the airport) to meet with the SSS director. Ken Henshaw’s phone details and office address were extracted from him before I was allowed to travel with my documents. My passport details were also recorded by the SSS.

After this and the experience of Easter Monday it is clear that there is need for vigilance.”

Six armed policemen from the Rivers State Police Command assaulted and arbitrarily detained human rights activists Asume Osuoka, Celestine Akpobari, and Ken Henshaw, of Nigeria-based NGO Social Action, on April 5, 2010.  Mr. Osuoka said that the police did not ask them for any form of identification but knew who they were; their NGO Social Development Integrated Centre is known for its work in human rights and environmental justice, including its publications on gas flaring and oil-induced conflict.

Mr. Celestine said he was “repeatedly hit with the butt of a gun, poked with a barrel in his arms and legs and slapped in the face, as at least six armed men, including at least three uniformed police officers, forced the activists out of their car and into a white van without asking the victims for any form of identification.” Mr. Celestine added that he was denied medical treatment for his injuries. The three men were taken to Olu Obasanjo police station in Port Harcourt, where they were denied access to legal counsel. They were later released without charge at around midnight on April 5.

On April 9, Amnesty international called on the Nigerian government to launch immediate investigations into the assault and detention of these human rights defenders. More from Amnesty here.  More from a spokesperson of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organisation, a local human rights group, printed in the Guardian (Nigeria), here.

Excerpt below:
The three activists, all staff of Social Action, a Non-Governmental Organisation based in Port Harcourt, were trailed from their Oromineke Lay Out office in D-Line, Port Harcourt about 9 p.m. by over six heavily armed policemen operating in a white Hilux police van. They were double-crossed at Garrison junction, dragged out of their vehicle and beaten mercilessly. The policemen used their gun butts and gun nozzles, boots, batons and horsewhips to unleash mayhem on the law-abiding citizens. Celestine Akpobari sustained serious injuries and was later hospitalised on the following day, Wednesday, April 6 in a private hospital in Port Harcourt.

After the physical assault, the policemen bundled them into their Hilux van and took them to the Olu Obasanjo Police Station where they were detained until about 12 midnight before they were released. They were not told the offence they committed for which they were arrested, beaten up, humiliated and detained. But we suspect that the action of the police may not be unconnected with the campaigns of the activists against forced evictions of residents of Waterfront by the government of Rivers State headed by Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as well as other campaigns against mis-governance in the state. They had received several threats from agents of the state prior to the attack.

Before the April 5 attack on the three activists, another activist, Kentebe Ebiaridor, a staff of Environmental Rights Action (ERA) and member of the CLO, was manhandled by policemen at Agip Estate, Rumueme, Portharcourt on Friday, April 2, 2010 about 1 a.m. He was returning from work when he was accosted by the battle-ready policemen who beat him up, bundled him into their vehicle and into the Rumuokpakani Police Station’s cell at Ada George road, Port Harcourt. Kentebe, who refused to pull off his clothes and enter the cell as ordered by the policemen, was brutalised and jerked up by several policemen on duty and thrown into the cell. He was later released about 9 a.m. following the intervention of the CLO.