Nigeria police ban anti-Mubarak protest: rights groups
LAGOS
Nigerian rights groups on Friday said police denied them permission to stage a protest in support of Egyptians demanding that longtime President Hosni Mubarak step down.
A coalition of 62 rights groups had planned to stage the protest in front of the Egyptian embassy on Thursday in the capital Abuja but stayed away after failing to secure police clearance.
"We were told we could not do it on the grounds that no country in sub-Saharan Africa has done it, and secondly that it would pose serious security challenges to the Nigerian government," said Shehu Sani, a leading Nigerian rights campaigner.
Police confirmed they had received the application, but refused to say whether the march had been approved or not.
Sani of the Civil Rights Congress said the protest had to be called off.
"What we had intended to show was that we are in solidarity with their (Egyptians') calls and with their aspirations," he said. "What they have done is an inspiration to all the people of Africa struggling for genuine democracy."
The march was also aimed at pressuring west African countries to state their stance on the crisis gripping Egypt. A number of African nations hold elections this year, with Nigeria's ballot set for April.
The groups are now mulling legal action for what they consider "an infringement of our freedom of expression and assembly."
