In a related development, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, has raised the alarm that in recent months, multiple journalists covering protests in different parts of the world have been subjected to various forms of attacks, including killings, injuries, arbitrary detentions, and confiscation of their equipment, while exercising their rightful duties as journalists.
Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Emeritus Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, as well as youths from Arewa and civil society organizations demanded yesterday that demonstrators from the country’s August 1–August 10, 2024, #EndBadGovernance protests be released immediately.
This occurred the same day that Femi Falana, SAN, the chairman of the Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond, ASCAB, and a human rights attorney, declared that his organization would not think twice about suing the federal government if it did not either arraign or free the people who had been detained before August 25.
He also revealed that 1,403 of the 2,111 detainees detained during the rallies had been placed under detention in various national prisons.
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 authorised 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 organisation 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 organise the #EndBadGovernance protests in the country.
‘’As if that was not enough, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, 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.