Activist Omoyele Sowore has challenged the Nigeria Police Force to stop behaving as a private army to rich and famous citizens.
This came as Sowore called on the judiciary to stop making outrageous rulings on internet speech.
He posted this on X in response to singer Adekunle Gold’s attack on former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012.
The singer had written: “Dear God if you give us Dagrin back we will give you Jonathan back. Lol.”
Sowore wondered how a singer who benefitted from freedom of expression would turn around to use the police, court and the cybercrime framework against ordinary Nigerians.
He wrote “This was @AdekunleGold back in 2012 criticising then President @GoodluckJonathan openly. It was free speech then and if he’d been arrested for those tweets, we’d have been on the streets demanding his immediate release.
So how does a person who has benefited from freedom of expression turn around years later to use the police, courts and the brutal cybercrime framework against ordinary Nigerians over online banter and social media exchanges?
“You can’t enjoy free speech when you’re powerless and you criminalize it the moment you become influential.
“Freedom of expression must be for all – whether it is celebrities, politicians, activists, or poor young Nigerians on social media.
“The Nigeria Police Force @PoliceNG need to stop acting as a private army for the rich and famous and the judiciary need to stop giving outrageous punishment over internet speech that should never be criminal matters in the first place.”
