Nov. 30, 2013
Dear friends and Compatriots,
It gives me immense pleasure to formally announce to you all that Dr Emmanuel Fashakin was released at exactly 6pm yesterday (29/11/2013) after over 13hours of arrest and detention, without food or the courtesy of water.
He went through a horrendous ordeal in the custody of the SSS.
There was an attempt to force him to ‘implicate’ himself with prepared statements. He refused! After his arrest, he was searched to see if he had an equivalent of N5Million on him so that a charge of contravention of currency regulation could be brought against him.That also failed.
The major charge against him was that he expressed, on his facebook page, preference for military rule since President Jonathan is leading the country precipitously. How, in a supposed democracy that should entrench plurality of opinion, that should ruffle some feathers is left to be seen by keen watchers!
I must use this medium to thank all the good people out there, who have brought much pressure on the principalities in the land to prefer the culture and tradition of repression of the citizenry as a default governance of the affairs in the Polity.
The Almighty God deserves all the Praise that all through Emmanuel’s travails, favour and mercy were not in short supply. The American Embassy also showed immense courage in asking that a man who holds the american passport be treated with utmost fairness.
Barrister Bamidele Aturu, a Nigerian whose unquestionable thirst for social Justice, deserves much commendation.
The initial call in the morning was to his wife who passed the phone to him. The spontaneity of his response will continue to leave deep impression on me. And to all of you: the unflinching advocacy and condemnation of that show of turpitude by the SSS, clearly showed that all is not lost for Nigeria. Indeed, the multifarious pressure from the various segments drastically reduced the detention duration from 30 days to a little over 13 hours!
I do hope that this sordid saga will be laid to rest completely and not discourage Nigerians in diaspora from stepping into the land of their nativity.
I thank you all.
Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
From Nasir El Rufai on Facebook
