Oby Ezekwesili to sue FG over police harassment

Worried by continued harassment from Nigerian Police and other security operatives, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has threatened to institute legal action against the Federal Government for impeding on her rights.


Ezekwesili threat came barely a week after security officials allegedly prevented her and other members of the Red Card Movement group from gaining access to the President’s office, to express their dissatisfaction.

She made the threat yesterday when she led other members of the Red Card Movement train to Tejuoso Market in Lagos, where they launched State chapter of the movement.

The former minister, who founded the movement to sensitize Nigerians on the need to demand for quality leadership, especially ahead 2019 election in the country, stressed that the constitution permits citizens to air their opinion within the country.

“The government cannot suppress the voice of the citizens. The government is making a mistake to think it could do that. The constitutional rights of citizens to free movement, assembly, expression cannot be taken by anyone including the government.

“In a democratic system, they have no right to determine what we do and how we should do it. We are not going to stop. We will continue to hold our movement activities and we will go to court if they should think that they could repress our rights,” she added.

The former minister, who attributed bane of Nigeria’s challenges to bad leadership, hinted that Nigeria’s cannot develop without quality leadership.

“We need to fix the leadership problem that had bedevilled this country for long. And we haven’t had the quality of leadership that would build Nigeria into a prosperous nation, if we have done the same thing over and over again, we need to correct it.

“It has become obvious that either of the parties in the country could provide the needed leadership, we need to get the citizens to rise and demand for good candidates at all levels for us to vote for them. But if we don’t find the candidate with the required leadership qualities, we will not vote for the same candidates that has kept the country at the same place.”