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President Yar'Adua: Release Jonathan Elendu now!
AN NVS STATEMENT Written by Administrator, Nigerian Village Square
Wednesday, 29 October 2008

It is now over one week since agents of the Nigerian Government arrested Mr. Jonathan Elendu, a US-based online journalist on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on charges that are still to be made public. Following his arrest, Mr Elendu has been held incommunicado from his family and lawyers.

We at the Nigerian Village Square (NVS) are deeply concerned at this arrest and continued detention without charge. We call on the Nigerian Government to respect its own laws, and to immediately bring an end to Mr Elendu’s detention, by charging him to court or by releasing him unconditionally.

The Nigerian state should equally distance itself from harassing those who are courageous enough to enter an opinion on issues affecting their country or those who in allegiance to their vocations are at the forefront of making power conform to social responsibility. Such tactics has no place in a civilized society. Freedom of expression is not the gift of the government to its subjects. It is a fundamental human right.

History has shown that it is only in a tyranny that journalists are imprisoned without recourse to the rule of law. We strongly believe that Nigeria is not a tyranny. We hope that the government should not prove otherwise, as the rule of law has been the mantra of this government.

Release Jonathan Elendu now!

Administrator
Nigerian Village Square


...Read the full article.

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Nice!

this surely must have gone thru a lawyer-read :) ?

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Nice one.
Though you may want to remove the Administrator sign off.

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Well done NVS. A petition may help also.

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THE SSS AS AN AGENT OF TYRANNY

A commendable gesture by the NVS!

It is high time citizens started a concerted campaign against the goons of that repressive outfit called the SSS.

The campaign should target in the first instance the leadership of that eerie contraption. We should "name and shame" the head of the SSS. (By the way, who is the sinister thug currently in charge of the SSS?) Human rights groups should, for instance, send petitions to embassies in Abuja. One aim of the effort is to hold that individual and his fellow agents of terror criminally responsible for their crimes against humanity. Members of the SSS must not be accorded visas for travel outside Nigeria.

It is alarming that agents of the SSS talk and behave as if they are an extension of the PDP.

The necessary sanitizatrion of the country will also involve the dismantling of those tyrannical structures that were erected by depraved tin gods with the sole objective of ensuring their vicious stranglehold on the populace. As it is presently constituted, the SSS is a tool for repression in the hands of corrupt and incompetent pols and their confederates.

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Latest from Saharareporters:

BREAKING NEWS: Nigerian Blogger, Jonathan Elendu Released From Detention

Last View on Wed 29th October, 2008
Last Modified on Wed 29th October, 2008 8:41:35 am
Author: Posted By Admin Sahara
Lawyers to Mr Jonathan Elendu issued a press release announcing his release from the custody of the SSS at about 10.30am this morning in Abuja to the custody of his lawyers Ichie Chuks Muoma (SAN) and Ugo Muoma.

According to the statement Mr Elendu is currently undergoing medical examinations by his doctors and will shortly be making a press release which will be communicated to you.

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"We at the Nigerian Village Square (NVS)..."

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I personally have no problems with the sentiments expressed here, but who exactly is 'we' here?

I think we've had this debate about people claiming to speak on behalf of NVS?

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Admin,

This is a well written and a well articulated position on the Elendugate. To the extent that it calls on the government of Yar-Adua to charge Mr Elendu to court or release him unconditionally, I fully subscribe to this position. The government has no right to arrest and embark on a fishing expedition for evidence to prosecute. If there is no articulable evidence to prosecute, you cannot arrest.

I only wish that you would have omitted any suggestion that Yar-Adua harrases anyone who is "courageous enough to enter an opinion on issues affecting their country or those who in allegiance to their vocations are at the forefront of making power conform to social responsibility". That is speculative, panders to extremism and tends to undercut your own logic or gives the government a wiggle room to focus on the minor.

In all however, this is an excellent write-up. Good job.

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I hope this statement wasn't issued after his release. What took you so long Admin ? Anyway, better late than never.

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An idiotic, stagnant and fraudlent government headed by a retarded, sick and hopeless idiot called Yar'adua. A man so incompetent yet so desperate to hold on to power, a man so sick, yet cannot see himself relinguishing the keys of Aso rock his birth right. We can tell the state of the nation from the state of the man that governs the state. Yar'adua is sick, blind to any positive vision and deaf to reason and sees any criticism of his incompetence as an invitation to war. Is anyone still wondering why the nation is still in coma more than one year after his inglorious election victory. We are not seeing these things for the first time, Abacha was most ruthless on his sick bed and Abacha and his dark goggles returned to Kano in a body bag.
Arrest anyone that questions your competence and those of your gang of thieves in the name of ministers, 'oga servant leader' but it will stop nothing. Babangida tried and failed, Abacha died trying and whoever thinks Yar'adua will escape the body bag????