#EndBAdGovernance: Group Condemn Trial Of Minors And Call For Their Immediate Release

The trial of the twenty-nine minors who participated in the #EndBadGovernance protest, arraigned for treason on Friday before a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has been generating a lot of furor among local and international groups.

About 76 protesters were charged with 10 felony counts, including treason, destruction of property, public disturbance, and mutiny, for protesting against the increasing cost of living in the country from August 1 to 10 2024.

The minors who appeared in court on Friday after being held ranged between 14 – 17 years of age and looked malnourished raising questions about their welfare while in detention and wide condemnation among Nigerians and Human Rights Activists, demanding the immediate release of the youths by the Nigeria Police Force. They claim that arraigning minors contravenes both regional and international laws.

Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education, CHRICED, Concerned Parents and Educators, CPE, and ActionAid have condemned the treason charges the Nigeria Police Force filed against minors.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, urged President Bola Tinubu to use his “leadership position and good offices to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN to take urgent steps to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all the #EndBadGovernance protesters including the 32 hungry and malnourished children.”
Also, activist and lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana insisted on the AFG terminating the charges without further delay.

Reacting, ACF in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, said: “It is with utter dismay that we observe the spectacle of fellow citizens, hauled before a Federal High Court at Abuja, on trial on allegations of treason, and other offenses, arising from their participation in the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests. The suspects consist mostly of minors.

“The trial is a show of shame and it is as crass, gross, and disturbing as can be. It is also a demonstration of needless official high-handedness at its worst. Equally unsettling was the dramatic departure from the court of the presiding judge on sighting some of the under-aged detainees collapsing from hunger and suffering. ACF views these citizens as victims of the Nigerian criminal justice administration system and mindless bureaucracy.”

“ACF joins other Nigerians, national and international human rights groups in strongly condemning this charade of a trial and naked, strong-arm tactic, reminiscent of strategies employed by authoritarian and intolerant but weak regimes aimed at muscling citizens.
Arraigning minors contravenes regional, and international laws —

NHRC

NHRC through its Executive Secretary, Mr. Tony Ojukwu, SAN, maintained that the arraignment of the minors for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government of President Bola Tinubu, “clearly contravenes a plethora of national, regional and international laws.”

Commending the AGF, asking the police to transfer the case file to his office for a review, the commission knocked the Federal High Court in Abuja for imposing what it described as a “draconian bail condition” impossible for the accused teenagers to fulfill.

“The judge witnessed some of the children looking malnourished and unwell which calls to question the mental state of the judge when imposing such bail conditions on the children and minors for participating in a protest now turned treason.

“The commission wishes to state that the arrest, detention, and arraignment of these minors by the Nigerian Police on charges of treason and attempting to overthrow a legitimate government among other charges, clearly contravenes a plethora of national, regional, and international laws,” the NHRC added.

SERAP gives Tinubu 48 hours to release detained minors, who were arrested for merely exercising their fundamental human rights in a peaceful protest.

SERAP also urged him “to direct Mr. Fagbemi and appropriate agencies to ensure the immediate access to medical treatment for all the protesters including the 32 hungry malnourished children for their

deteriorating health.”

In the open letter, SERAP’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, said: “Bringing charges against children and detaining them simply for the peaceful exercise of their human rights is not acting in the ‘best interests of the child.

“The detention of the 32 hungry and malnourished children also infringes on their right to education. These children ought to be in school, and not languishing in detention.

“The apparent ill-treatment of the protesters including the 32 hungry and malnourished children have shined a light on the appalling conditions in Nigeria’s prisons which continue to put lives at risk.”
CISLAC, ActionAid demand punishment of police officers involved in violation of rights

Executive Director of Awual Rafsanjani, said: “If they were treated fairly, with dignity, the children wouldn’t look malnourished, in total starvation, and would not be in psychological torture.

He said that the continued confinement of these children will psychologically affect these youths and ultimately destroy them.
“Therefore, what we are still saying is that even the police officers who arrested and detained the children violated their rights and the law.

“The Police spokesman who even justified the arrest and arraignment, even the Inspector General of Police, who said the children’s collapse was stage-managed, these statements don’t speak well of the country, and the whole world is watching even as the children were scrambling for water and food inside the court showed that they were hungry, and they don’t even know about the allegations framed against them.

“The Constitution and the Child Rights Act make it clear that minors are not to be treated like adults in cases where the law is violated. In this case, there’s no evidence of these children being involved in the act of treason, yet they have been subjected to a reality most kids their age would never know in their lifetime.

The Executive Director, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, CHRICED blamed the whole saga on the government for its failure to support vulnerable children in the country.

“For a nation that purports to uphold democratic values, the dehumanizing treatment of its citizens is profoundly concerning.”
If found guilty, the children might be sentenced to death.

However according to some Human Rights lawyers, the Child Rights Act does not allow any child to be subject to criminal proceedings and sentenced to death, except of course, the government could prove that the youths are all above 18. The lawyers came that taking minors before a federal high court and trying them for criminal offenses is wrong in the first place.

For this, Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana insists AGF must terminate the charge immediately.

Falana in a letter to the NBA president, commending the association for condemning the arraignment of malnourished children for treason and allied offenses, said: “The arraignment of three groups of 130 #endbadgovernance protesters by the Police constitutes a gross abuse of prosecutorial powers. It is hoped that the AGF, who has since taken over the cases, will terminate them without further delay.

“Having fought and won the legal battle that culminated in the judicial recognition of the fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens to protest against unpopular policies of governments, we have decided to lead the legal defense of the 130 #endbadgovernance protesters. Even though we are convinced that the frivolous charges will be withdrawn by the Federal Government or dismissed by the trial court, it is pertinent to review the massive infringement of the fundamental rights of citizens for protesting against the implementation of the neoliberal economic policies of the Bola Tinubu administration.

“However, it is common knowledge that the fundamental rights of children and other citizens to dignity, liberty, and fair hearing are regularly violated by security agencies in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. To that extent, the NBA should go beyond the condemnation of the arraignment of the #EndBadGovernance protesters including malnourished children.

“It is high time that the NBA took advantage of the provisions of the Constitution, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, and relevant international human rights instruments to put an end to the reckless violations of the fundamental rights of poor and vulnerable citizens in the country,” Falana wrote.

Peter Obi, who unsuccessfully contested the 2023 presidential election, has also widely condemned the action by the Nigerian police.
Amnesty International also condemned the “horrifying detentions of the minors for participating in protests against hunger and corruption”, calling it “one of the deadliest attempts to suppress freedom of assembly” so far.

But the office of the Nigerian Inspector General of Police swiftly denied having subjected the detainees to ill-treatment, saying that medical aid was provided to the defendants.

Owing to the prevailing hunger in the land, and the acute food insecurity in West Africa, recent reports by foreign media have reported that the United Nations’ food agencies classified Nigeria as a “hotspot of very high concern.”