Civil society organisations have called for the immediate and unconditional release of UK-based Nigerian activist Maureen Badejo, alleging that she is being subjected to judicial persecution aimed at silencing her through police and court actions.
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) is leading the campaign, describing the case as an abuse of power and an attempt to punish an individual for exercising fundamental freedoms.
In a statement, the group said Badejo was hurriedly arraigned and remanded by the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, following interrogation at the police Cybercrime Unit in the Adekunle area of Yaba.
According to the coalition, the charges against Badejo stem from petitions filed by clerics who had previously engaged her in legal disputes abroad.
The group referenced a March 2022 ruling by the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom which ordered Apostle Johnson Suleman to pay Badejo £19,601 in a defamation suit he had filed against her.
“What is unfolding before our very eyes is not the pursuit of justice but a carefully orchestrated judicial ambush designed to silence a critical voice,” the statement said.
“The pattern is dangerously familiar. We have witnessed a disturbing trend where the machinery of the state is weaponised to settle private scores, and where powerful individuals deploy law enforcement agencies to intimidate and incarcerate those who dare to speak truth to power.”
The coalition argued that the UK court ruling, which it said supported Badejo’s position in the dispute, had been ignored in the Nigerian proceedings.
The organisations warned that the use of criminal defamation charges against activists and critics reflects a troubling pattern of using state institutions to settle private disputes.
They also referenced the recent case involving Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, which they said raised concerns about alleged abuse of legal processes and the heavy deployment of police officers during attempts to effect an arrest.
“The Nigerian judiciary, which ought to be the last hope of the common man, is increasingly being deployed as a weapon of oppression,” the group said.
“We have seen this play out repeatedly, most recently in the case of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, where ten truckloads of armed policemen were reportedly deployed to effect an unlawful arrest and civil society organisations condemned what they described as an egregious abuse of court processes.”
According to the coalition, Badejo’s apprehension through Interpol and her subsequent detention in Nigeria over what it described as a civil dispute raises serious concerns about the use of international law enforcement mechanisms.
“A UK-based citizen was apprehended through Interpol, brought before a Nigerian court, and remanded in one of the country’s most congested correctional centres over charges that are fundamentally civil in nature and which have already been litigated in foreign courts,” the statement added.
The organisations called for the immediate and unconditional release of the activist and the withdrawal of all charges against her.
They also urged Justice Aluko to ensure that the court acts independently and protects constitutional rights, including freedom of expression and the right to fair hearing.
The group said the legal actions against Badejo stem from petitions related to her online commentary and described them as an attempt to intimidate her.
“The bully here is the Nigerian State, wielding the heavy baton of the police and the courts to intimidate a single woman into silence,” the statement said.
“This is the hallmark of a dictatorship, not a democracy.”
