Nigeria — ISA Member Shot — Includes Model Protest Letter

October 29, 2021
MSA || ISA in Nigeria

Barely 4-days after she returned back to campus from the National Congress of the MSA that held over the weekend in Lagos, our comrade Juliana Martins partook in a peaceful demonstration in Benin City to demand for their stipends and packages due to them for participating in the Petroleum Industrial Act (PIA) workshop.

MODEL PROTEST LETTER

We ask all trade unions, ISA sections and organisations as well as individual supporters to urgently send a protest letter to the Nigerian Embassy in your country and the following addresses:

Model letter

To:
Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba.
Commissioner of Police Edo State, Philip Aliyu Ogbadu.

I am writing to condemn the shooting of Juliana Martins at a peaceful demonstration in Benin City on Thursday 28 October 2021.

Juliana was protesting along with other students from the University of Benin and students from Niger Delta, after the management of the National Petroleum Development Commission (NPDC) headed by the MD, Ali Muhammad Zarah reneged on their commitments to provide participants in the Petroleum Industrial Act workshop with stipends and laptops.

At the peaceful demonstration which was widely reported by several Nigerian media organisations, a trigger-happy policeman of the Edo State Command, identified as DSP Emmanuel opened fire at the protesters and shot Juliana Martins who is a 400 level Mass Communication student from the University of Benin, Benin-City.

We demand an immediate investigation into this heinous act and the prosecution of all those responsible, including the senior police officers and NPDC management who oversaw these events.

We also support the call for a panel of enquiry that will include student representatives to investigate the incident and to bring the trigger-happy policeman attached to the company and identified as DSP Emmanuel to book.

We also demand that all necessary comprehensive medical care be provided free for Juliana for the treatment of all scars both physical and psychological with due compensation.

The management of the National Petroleum Development Commission (NPDC) headed by the MD, Ali Muhammad Zarah is reported to have reneged on the promises to the students which led to the protest. At the peaceful demonstration which was widely reported by several media organizations in the country, a trigger-happy policeman of the Edo State Command, identified as DSP Emmanuel opened fire at the protesters and shot our comrade, Juliana.

Juliana is a 400 level Mass Communication student from the University of Benin, Benin-City. She has remained active in the MSA since recruited and at the Congress she contributed to the discussion and promised to be more active in her branch.

We want to use the opportunity to call for solidarity, letters of protest condemning the act of the NPDC management and the Nigerian police. We hereby provide the following names and phone numbers of the actors to condemned the act and call for the necessary comprehensive medical care that would free her of all scars both physical and psychological with due compensation.

We have issued a statement to this regard calling for a panel of enquiry that will include student representatives to investigate the incident and to bring the trigger-happy policeman attached to the company and identified as DSP Emmanuel to book.
Thanks in solidarity.

Dagga Tolar
For MSA.

29th October 2021

PRESS STATEMENT

MSA CONDEMNS THE SHOOTING AT PEACEFUL PROTESTERS IN NPDC HEADQUARTERS, BENIN CITY

A few days from the just concluded — memorial service of the massacre of peaceful protesters at Lekki Toll Gate by the Nigerian government, the case of police brutality and militarized onslaught on innocent citizens have been unabated.

Sadly, yesterday, one of our comrades, Juliana Martin, was shot and she is currently undergoing treatment at the military hospital in Benin.

The incident which occurred at the headquarters of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Commission (NPDC), in Benin City, had peaceful protesters from Niger Delta Student Union Government and Ijaw Youth Council shot at by the police force.

The protester, according to the report, were demanding better welfare after the company’s management failed to fulfill their promise.

The MSA considers this act by the police and the NPDC management as a violation of the right to life and the democratic right to engage in a peaceful protest.

Sadly, this demonstrated that in a country supposedly democratic, the lives of innocent poor working — citizens are not guaranteed. And raises the question of democracy under a system supposedly built on making a profit out of those that barely have. And subsequently, employing the machinery of the state to repress agitations.

Most of the protesters, from reports, were mainly students and youths within the Niger Delta Community and had conducted themselves peacefully, without any provocation whatsoever.

However, is this the Petroleum Industrial Act 2021 “new order” of corporate governance? Are Nigerians now to expect a free reign and use of terror against them by the government as part of its business-environment drive initiative? Is the NPDC not so established to meet the welfare needs of members from the Niger Delta, and are students not a sub-section of such a component?

What is NPDC hiding, is it that funds have been mismanaged or diverted, and that social concerns are now off the radar of the commission?

The MSA demands that the NPDC comes clean on this particular incident and that the MD, Ali Muhammad Zarah be held accountable for this terrible and condemnable incident.

We insist on a panel of inquiry that will include student representatives to investigate the incident and all involved in this perpetration, brought to book.

We look forward to your media outfit reporting this event.

Thanks for your anticipation.

Yours comradely

Dagga Tolar

Secretary-General

MSA

(We urge comrades to give popularity to this statement and join us demanding adequate medical treatment and compensation for those injured by the police).

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