The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on Sunday, condemned the trial of minors on allegations of treason and other offenses over their participation in the EndBadGovernance protests in August, describing the trial as “a show of shame”.
Recall that several suspects, including minors looking malnourished were on Friday arraigned for ‘their roles’ in the #EndBadGovernance protest. The charges against them include terrorism, arson, and treasonable felony.
Those arrested were said to be from Abuja, Kaduna, Gombe, Jos, Katsina, and Kano.
The court later granted the defendants, who looked ill and malnourished, N10 million bail each.
The AFC in a statement on Sunday by Muhammad-Baba, its spokesperson, said the forum viewed the citizens as victims of “Nigeria’s flawed criminal justice system and excessive bureaucracy”.
The statement reads: “The very unhelping and insensitive words, to the press, of the prosecuting attorney and those of the inspector-general of the police were just as distressing, amounting to an attempt to rationalise the mis-action, adding to the absurdity of the sham trial.
“A telling symptom of a justice system gone wild is that the suspects were offered bail for the sum of N10 million each plus some other stringent conditions.
“From their looks, most of the detainees cannot raise as little as N10,000 to post bail.”
Muhammad-Baba said senior government officials’ promises to care for detainees rang hollow, noting that innocent citizens faced detention while protest instigators remained free.
“ACF is disappointed in the apparent resort to abandoning court by the trial judge as well as the unreasonable bail conditions he granted the detainees,” he said.
“It was not just the impossible monetary condition, but to ask the detainees to provide sureties who must be senior government officials is beyond belief, these being citizens from the lower rungs of society who may never have been to Abuja!
“Shorn of all niceties or political correctness, the trial simply assaults common sense, and it is, in this regard, as scandalous and reckless as can be.”
The ACF said the incident portrays President Bola Tinubu’s administration in a “very bad light” locally and internationally, adding that the incident is viewed as a “naked demonstration of untamed power” that aims to “intimidate and subdue” citizens exercising their rights to protest and express grievances.
The ACF spokesperson asked for thorough investigations into the detention circumstances.
He added that detainees deserve financial compensation for “unnecessary and unjustified detention” and urgent medical and psychological care.
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