The Emeritus Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, civil society organizations, Chief Security Officers (CSOs), and Arewa youths, yesterday called for the immediate release of protesters during the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest held between August 1 and 10, 2024.
This came on a day rights lawyer and chairman of Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond, ASCAB, Femi Falana, SAN, said his group will not hesitate to sue the Federal Government should it fail to either arraign those arrested before August 25 or release them.
He also disclosed that of the 2,111 suspects arrested during the protests, 1,403 had been remanded in prisons across the country.
27 of the protesters, according to one of their lawyers, Deji Adeyanju, are to be arraigned at the Federal High Court in Abuja today, after two failed attempts to arraign them by the police.
Speaking on the issue in Abuja yesterday, Cardinal Onaiyekan, while making a case for the immediate release of the suspects, said the unarmed protesters are not the cause of Nigeria’s problems.
He said: “It is not unarmed protesters who are the cause of our problems. Our president told us he is ready to dialogue with all those who are unhappy, but he needs to take the initiative now.
“Is this how to ask for dialogue? There is need to completely change our attitude. The people (protesters) were just ordinary young people who are hungry.
‘’The only way to show that you feel our pain is to do things that will relieve the suffering and pain of the people. That is what the government is there for.
“When we talk about youth nowadays, we are not talking about small boys or girls, we are talking about people who are 35 and below. Most of them have graduated, and most of them have skills.”
On his part, Mr Falana in a statement, titled ‘’Halt The Clampdown On Protesters,’’ said: “Instead of subjecting the #EndBadGovernance protesters to unwarranted clampdown, the Federal Government should either release or arraign the scores of detained suspects before appropriate courts without any further delay.
‘’Whenever the suspects are going to be arraigned, they must be given adequate notice to be able to contact the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and their family members to make arrangements for their defence.
‘’However, if all the suspects are not charged before August 25, 2024, the Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond, ASCAB, will approach the Federal High Court to demand their immediate release.
‘’ASCAB has also resolved to defend the cases filed against the protests by two state governments (Lagos and Ogun) and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT
‘’More fundamentally, it’s important to remind the Nigerian state again that beyond legalism, the solution to the political problem of which protests are mere symptoms lie in the honest application of socio-economic justice.
“Elements of this socio-economic justice include policy instruments fashioned to fight hunger, ignorance, disease and the scandalous inequality which define the Nigerian society today.’’
The statement read further: ‘’Out of the 2,111 arrested suspects, 1,403 have been arraigned in various courts. Painfully, the suspects were ordered to be reminded in prison custody due to lack of legal representation.
‘’The suspects were denied legal representation, even though the Nigerian Bar Association had publicly announced its intention to provide lawyers to defend them.
‘’We have also confirmed that individual lawyers who had applied for bail of the detained suspects in police stations were not informed that they were going to be arraigned in the courts.
‘’We submit that the decision of the authorities to deny the suspects legal representation constitutes a violent breach of their fundamental right to fair hearing, guaranteed by Section 36 of the Constitution and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.
“This is highly discriminatory and illegal on the ground that politically exposed persons who are arrested for looting the treasury to the tune of several billions of naira are usually informed in advance of the dates and of their arraignment in courts.
“Such highly-placed suspected looters are always granted bail in liberal terms and even authorized by trial judges to travel abroad for medical treatment.
“It does appear that the security forces have decided to take advantage of the anti- government protests to clamp down on radical citizens and thereby expose the country to unprecedented ridicule.
“For instance, Comrade Michael Adaramoye (a.k.a. Lenin) has been detained for over three weeks in the anti-robbery department of the Nigeria Police Force in Abuja because he answers the sobriquet, “Lenin”.
“Messrs Elejo Opaluwa and Mosiu Abolaji are also detained in the same police station for belonging to a socialist organization which supported the protest.
“Seven Polish students who were taking part in an exchange programme in Bayero University, Kano, were arrested for taking photographs during the protest. They may be charged with espionage to give the impression that the protests were instigated by foreign interest groups.
“The offence allegedly committed by the 783 suspects arrested in Kano is that they displayed the Russian flag during the protest. A tailor who was sewing the flag was also arrested by the police.
“It may be difficult to press charges against the suspects in a country where the flags of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and other European countries are hoisted by majority of hotels in Nigeria, while churches hoist the flag of Israel based on the erroneous belief that it is a Christian country.
“During the recent invasion of the national secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Abuja, some Marxist books and other radical works were carted away because they were allegedly used to incite and organize the #EndBadGovernance protests in the country.
“As if that was not enough, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Joe Ajaero, has been summoned by the Nigeria Police Force for ‘interview’ on criminal charges relating to ‘criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion and cybercrime’.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), a team of the Nigeria police force invaded the house of the Principal of Stars of Nations Schools in Nasarawa State, Mrs Helen Batubo, in connection with the protests.
“Mrs. Batubo is the stepdaughter of Mr. Drew who owns the school and runs the bookshop on 2nd floor of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC‘s Labour House in Abuja.
‘’Since there is no scintilla of evidence to justify the allegations of criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion and cybercrime, the police should cancel the planned interrogation of the President of the NLC and return the books seized from the bookshops as they have not been banned in the country.
‘’We are compelled to call on the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, to cause an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the killing of 22 citizens that occurred during the protest.
“At the end of the investigation, the culprits should be charged with murder in the state high courts where the heinous offences were committed.
“Finally, it is pertinent to remind the Federal Government that some of the leaders of the 2020 #EndSARS protests were charged with frivolous offences, while others had their passports seized and accounts frozen.
“Over 160 people were killed in Lagos and other cities, yet the massive clampdown on #EndSARS leaders has not stopped aggrieved youths from protesting against official policies that are considered inimical to the interests of the Nigerian people.’’
Listing the 2,111 arrested suspects with their states of arrest, the statement read: ‘’Kano—873; Jigawa –403; Katsina—120; Gombe—111; Sokoto—110; Borno—99; Yobe—90; Bauchi-60; Plateau—51; Kaduna—50; FCT—50; Nasarawa –40; Niger—25; Zamfara –19; and Cross Rivers State—10.’’
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