The Socialist Workers and Youth League has condemned the arrest of members of the Take It Back group, who also belong to the African Action Congress, with Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, as presidential candidate by the Lagos State Police Command.
The condemnation was contained in a statement by Lai Brown for SWL.
The statement said the arrest of the Take it Back/AAC members in the early hours of Sunday “while pasting the party’s campaign materials is a clear indication that the government have no regards for the democratic principles. These arrested TiB/AAC members did not violate any law, because they were posting the posters on public spaces in accordance with the provision of INEC and LASAA of Lagos State. Clearly their only crime is that they are conscious Nigerians seeking for real political alternatives and a departure from the bosses’ neoliberal exploitative system.
“Of course the attack on the TIB/AAC shows that the oppressive government and cohorts are getting cold feet already for the alternatives the party are organising with. Equally they are more afraid of the social changes the influx of conscious working people can bring to the party and to the nation at large. But the repressive act of the state government through the Area F command, Ikeja under the order of the state commissioner of police is an assault on the working people. That is not unconnected to the killings of the peaceful protesters in Abuja few weeks back. It equally shares similarity with the state influenced riggings during elections. All of these are rapes of the Nigeria working and poor masses collective interest and mandate.
“This shows that the bosses are resolved to use the state machineries to intimidate working people seeking for real social changes from below. It further established our position the the current democracy which is the bourgeois democracy that place the control of public institutions in the hands of the few thereby undermining the interest of the majority working people is a failure. Only a workers’ democracy that place these institutions and resources under the democratic control of the working people can work. Obviously the political elites and bosses will not give us this on the platter of gold, clearly they are not prepared to hand it over through the ballot. We have to organise and fight for real systemic change from below.
“Socialist Workers and Youth League (SWL) thereby condemn the arrest and all forms of attacks on democracy. We sternly implore the Nigeria Police to abide by the tenets of democracy and go by international standards and stay off partisanship. Equally we enjoin the Nigeria working people, students and youth to join the protest for the immediate and unconditional release of the detained people and to defend democracy that was fought for and won by the working people. Workers united can never be defeated.”