PUNCH – “Until he and his repressive regime purge themselves of their martial tendency, therefore, PUNCH will not be a party to falsely adorning it with a democratic robe, hence our decision to label it for what it is – an autocratic military-style regime run by Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).”
In a remarkable show of courage and display of a high sense of responsibility, Nigeria’s most widely read newspaper – PUNCH – on Wednesday took a stinging swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, describing it as autocratic and lawless.
In a well-crafted and compelling editorial reflecting the newspaper company’s stand on the continued abuse of the country’s laws by the Nigerian Government and its many agencies under Buhari’s watch, PUNCH also condemned the rearrest and violation of rights of pro-democracy campaigner and journalist, Omoyele Sowore, who remains in the detention of the Department of State Services despite two valid court orders directing his release after meeting stringent bail conditions.
The newspaper said the “entire country and a global audience are rightly scandalised by the unfolding saga over Omoyele Sowore and the unruliness of the SSS and the government”.
The respected media establishment said that it “will not adopt the self-defeating attitude of many Nigerians looking the other way after each violation of rights and attacks on the citizens, the courts, the press and civic society lawfully exercising their inalienable rights to peaceful dissent”.
While not expressing surprise at how government and its agencies had operated under Buhari, PUNCH, in its widely applauded editorial, said: “this regime’s actions and assaults on the courts, disobedience of court orders and arbitrary detention of citizens reflect its true character of the martial culture”.
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Expressing its views further, the newspaper said, “It is only a pattern, a reflection of the serial disregard of the Buhari regime for human rights and its battering of other arms of government and our democratic institutions.
Source – http://saharareporters.com/
