Salami: Protests At UK, U.S. Embassies

Hundreds of activists this morning stormed the embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, France and Canada in Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria, to protest the removal of Justice Ayo Isa Salami from the Appeal Court.

The activists, under the aegis of Coalition of Lagos Youths, Lagos State Chapter, in a protest letter to US President Barack Obama, said that Salami’s removal was arbitrary and capable of plunging Nigeria “into a theatre of national catastrophe”.

“We call on your trusted leadership to help in putting the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Goodluck Jonathan to check and the National Judicial Council in particular so that democracy will not be rendered useless in our nation,” the activists wrote to Obama.

“Ayo Isa Salami is not found wanting of any crime and therefore should be reinstated,” they added.

They wondered why Nigeria must be different while “all over the world, the judiciary is the foundation on which the society’s political and socio-economic superstructure are solidly built.”

“We are more than convinced that your government will act accordingly in the bid to strengthen the Nigerian democracy and contemporaneously avert an impending national crisis,” the activists said in the letter signed by Ahmed Somoye of the Nigeria Youth Council and Ayedun Taiwo Shanana of the Coalition of Lagos Youths.

—Simon Ateba