By Henry Ojelu
Human rights lawyer and Amnesty International legal adviser, Kolawole Olaniyan, has tackled the President Bola Tinubu administration over what he described as the growing use of the criminal justice system and security agencies to intimidate critics and restrict dissent.
Olaniyan, in an article titled “When the State Turns the Law Against Dissent Under Tinubu’s Watch,” said Nigeria was witnessing “an increasingly repressive political and legal environment,” with threats, harassment and intimidation of activists, journalists and civil society organisations allegedly being compounded by the use of the criminal justice system.
He cited recent cases involving the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, Professor Pat Utomi and activist Omoyele Sowore as examples of what he described as a “disturbing hat-trick of injustice.”
Olaniyan said it was troubling that the Department of State Services, DSS, was increasingly involved in cases concerning citizens’ right to criticise those in power.
“There is something deeply troubling about a country in which the security agency created to protect the state and its people increasingly finds itself in court seeking to restrain citizens from speaking, organising and criticising those in power,” he said.
According to him, restrictions on civic space do not always require soldiers on the streets or newspapers being shut down, but could take the form of “arbitrary arrest and detention, unlawful surveillance, unfair criminal prosecutions, baseless defamation lawsuits and strategic lawsuits against public participation.”
Olaniyan recalled SERAP’s long record of using public-interest litigation to challenge governments and demand accountability, including its successful challenge to the Federal Government’s Twitter suspension before the ECOWAS Court.
He said the organisation had also secured other significant court victories involving access to information, media freedom and accountability.
However, SERAP is currently appealing a judgment of the Federal Capital Territory High Court awarding N100 million damages against the organisation in a defamation case instituted by two DSS officials.
Olaniyan also cited the DSS case against Professor Utomi over his proposed “shadow government”, and the cybercrime prosecution of Sowore over social media comments in which he allegedly described Tinubu as a criminal.
He questioned whether harsh political criticism should be treated as a criminal matter.
“If calling a president a criminal on social media becomes a matter for the country’s secret police, where does legitimate political criticism end?” he asked.
Olaniyan recalled Tinubu’s 2025 Democracy Day declaration that Nigerians should be free to criticise him, saying: “No one should bear the brunt of injustice for merely writing a bad report about me or calling me names.”
He argued that the President’s words should be matched by action, saying government must ensure that security agencies do not use their powers to punish legitimate criticism.
Olaniyan also cited Amnesty International’s 2026 report on Nigeria, which raised concerns over arrests and detention of journalists and activists, restrictions on peaceful protests and prosecutions linked to expression.
He urged the administration to uphold judicial independence, respect human rights and ensure that security and law-enforcement agencies operate strictly within the law.
“Nigeria cannot afford a situation in which peaceful dissent is treated as a security threat and the institutions meant to protect the state and its people become the instruments through which citizens are silenced and repressed,” he said.
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