‘80,000 African journalists, activists detained for demanding good governance’

A group, African Rising Movement, on Tuesday said over 80,000 journalists and activists were brutalised and detained by African leaders for demanding good governance.

Muhammed Lamin, the co-coordinator of the group, said this in Abuja yesterday while unveiling the winners of Africans Rising, Activist of the year Award.

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He said: “We’ve lost a lot of our compatriots through bullets, through detentions, through torture and all forms of human brutality put on them by our governments.

“We encourage the government to release the activists and journalists who are in jails across African countries so as to decongest prisons.

Co-chair of the movement and Nigerian activist Deji Adeyanju said the movement made solidarity interventions to Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and other countries to ensure restoration of democratic rule.