In this report, Ise-Oluwa Ige, captures the perspectives of senior lawyers, academics and rights activist on the decision by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government not only to slam Nigerians who protested against his government in August this year with treason charge but also to detain underage protesters for 90 days in prison yard with hardened criminals and parade them before arraigning them before a Federal high court in Abuja.
Introduction
Major stakeholders including a one-time Abia State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof Awa Kalu, SAN, a respected member of the inner bar, Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN, a Professor of Political Institution, Governance and Public Policy at the University of Ibadan, Emmanuel Remi Aiyede and a former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Prof Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, have carpeted President Bola Tinubu administration for charging Nigerians who protested against its policies with treason.
The stakeholders said the serious charge preferred against the protesters amounted to killing a fly with a sledge hammer.
The senior citizens who also wondered how expressing one’s fundamental human rights of expression would be regarded as treason in the 21st century also rapped Tinubu’s administration for detaining under-age protesters in prison yards with hardened criminals for over three months before bringing them to court.
They said it was unthinkable that a judge who passed through the Nigerian Law School would agree to arraign underage in his court without querying the prosecutor for the misdeed.
Although upon the directive of President Tinubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN has taken over the case and dropped the charge against the accused persons, the senior lawyers are pushing for the sanction for not only the judge that purportedly allowed himself to be used to arraign the under-age protesters, they also wanted both the Inspector-General of the Police and the chief law officer of the Federation to be queried as well.
The stakeholders who took their time to trace the journey of the protesters to prison yards said it was amazing that President Tinubu who himself led protests in the past with the reputation of funding mass demonstration against bad governance would turn around to orchestrate the arrest and detention of innocent Nigerians under the pretext of attempting to overthrow his government when indeed his objective was to gag Nigerians from expressing themselves.
Background
Following growing rising cost of living, insecurity and hunger in the country fuelled by the implementation of a set of economic reforms by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration from May 29, 2023, Nigerian youths across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory , FCT, mobilized themselves to organize a 10-day mass demonstration nationwide.
The goal of the protest was to compel the Federal Government led by President Tinubu to reverse some of its anti-people policies on fuel subsidy removal, hike in electricity tariffs, custom duties, among others.
Although there were demonstrations on July 29, 2024 in the North Central region of Nigeria with some protesters blocking the Abuja-Kaduna highway and a march in Niger State, the main protest however started on August 1, 2024.
From the first day of the protest, men of the Nigerian Army and the Police killed some protesters in their bid to disperse them across the country, injured many others while several protestors including minors were arrested all through the duration of the demonstration.
In the Northern part of the country, some protesters including minors who waved Russian flags during the protest were also arrested.
Although the protest lasted one week and three days, the first three days were more effective than other days.
More than three months after the agents of the state arrested the protesters, unsettling video clips and pictures appeared online on November 1, 2024, showing tens of minors with few other detained protesters inside a court room in Abuja.
Few of the underage protesters collapsed in court from apparent malnutrition and inhuman conditions they were subjected to while the young detainees were awaiting trial for over three months on charges as extreme as treason.
The incident in court has generated reactions from various quarters within and outside the country.
It is ironical to charge protesters with treason—Prof Chidi Odinkalu
According to a former Chairman of National Human Rights Commission, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, he said it is a thing of irony that the person who claims to have built the home of protests in Nigeria is the person who is now making protest a thing of treason under a supposedly elective system of government, wondering when the exercise of the right to protest become treasonous in the country.
“Tinubu says he built Lagos. So, I presume he knows the history of the place. Workers in pre-colonial Lagos picketed in 1895. No one charged them with trying to overthrow Queen Victoria. The Lagos Water Riots so-called took place in 1907. No one killed the Eleko or charged him and the people with treason. It is a thing of irony that the person who claims to have built the home of protests in Nigeria is the person who is now making protest a thing of treason under a supposedly elective system of government. When did the exercise of the right to protest become treasonous?
“Now all the hyper-ventilation about the “release” of these kids should be seen in that light. The government created the chilling regime that enabled the police first to round up so many children, detain them for 93 days, arraign them for treason and make it such that a judge was afraid to do the right thing. This is more than merely about a treason charge. You have to see the full picture,” he added.
Charging protesters with treason amounts to killing a fly with slege hammer—Prof Kalu, SAN
A former Abia State Attorney-General, Prof Awa Kalu, SAN who agreed with Odinkalu said charging the protesters, particularly the underage with treason amounted to killing a fly with a sledge hammer.
“Government is a tactical business. You must know how to accommodate your friends and how to fight your enemies. So, if a child of 12 or 13 years flies a Russian flag, you charge him with treason, that is mind blowing, as far as I’m concerned.
“But luckily, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice who is sensitive to this kind of issues has called for the file and that the promise we had was that as soon as he got hold of the file, they would be released.
“Treason is a highly consequential offence. It is not a small offence. It is among the first degree offences. So, we are grateful to the AGF for realizing that we don’t kill a fly with a sledge hammer. That is all,” he said adding that the Inspector General of Police should be blamed for the misdeed.
IGP should be blamed for arresting, detaining innocent protesters—Kalu
According to him, “Let me say very quickly that we can’t drop all our dustbin in front of Tinubu’s house. Blame should be sectoral. It is the Inspector-General of Police who arraigned all those people. The IGP mans an institution that takes care of law and order. When you are in charge of law and order, you are deemed to know your limits.
“As far as I’m concerned, it is unlawful to arrest somebody who is protesting and the protest was not recorded as violent. So, lets blame the Inspector-General of Police for that misdeed. Everything should not end up with Tinubu. When he is sleeping, they blame him, when he is awake, they blame him.
“If you are put in charge of a goat and the goat ran away, you wont say it is Tinubu who caused it. Let that man take the blame, no matter the speed with which the goat ran. That’s what I think. The buck stops on his desk but not that minor buck must come and rest on his desk. That is the way power is. He is at the peak of responsibility. But small responsibilities must be blamed on those who are in charge of the minor ones,” he added.
Detaining protesters for over 90 days before bringing the to court wrong, amounts to gagging Nigerians—Ahamba
A senior lawyer and respected member of the inner bar, Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN simply said if Tinubu was protesting when he was not president and when he got into office, people protested and he began to arrest and send the protesters to prison, that is between him and his conscience.
He added: “In any event, to protest is a right. To protest in the open is a right even if it is declined. If you arrest a person in the course of protesting, how does that act which is only an expression of personal opinion, freedom of speech, amount to treason.
“And for three months, you didnt take them to court to tell them how it amounted to treason. That is an effort to gag Nigerians. It is unfortunate. You can gag everybody but not a hungry man.
“Even those children they detained, are you sure they knew what the protest was all about? They saw a crowd and followed them, carried flags and you put them in jail. That buck stops on the table of the judge who did it.
“If you bring people into court on that issue, the judge should say: you cant do this and refuse to do it. I remember, I wont mention names. There was a time, something happened in this Owerri. They carried a set of people to a magistrate asking for the person to be detained because it was obvious that he belonged to a different political opinion. The magistrate simply refused to do it. And that administration at that time who was against the accused and she suffered some disability but it doesnt really matter, she held that you cannot tell me to detain somebody that ought not to be detained; you cant bring a bailable offence and tell me not to grant bail. This is what the judiciary should learn to do.
Tinubu, a Chichidodo, not a democrat—Prof Aiyede
But for the Professor of Political Institution, Governance and Public Policy, Emmanuel Remi Aiyede, President Tinubu is a Chicidodo who gives the impression that he is a democrat when indeed he is a pretender.
According to him, when Tinubu was outside the Govt House, he was leading protest but when he got into the Government House, he started arresting protesters even though the people affected were protesting against his bad governance.
“So, I think the point that should be made is the question of his commitment to democratic expression of rights or democratic participation whether in his favour or against him.
“It is clear that regardless of who is at the receiving end, the standard practice is that citizens have the right to air their grievances peacefully through public demonstration, through strike, through marches, through placards, and through statements in the media including social media.
“But you know, not all those who claimed to be democrats are able to live up to their claim when they are put to test.
“And what we have found out is that president Tinubu is one of those who are unable to accommodate protesters without reacting violently as manifested in the way the police under his administration behaved and also the way those young people were arrested and paraded in court and jailed for over 90 days in very difficult circumstance,” he said.
Aiyede however expressed surprise that President Tinubu could put himself up as a tyrant now that he found himself in government.
According to him, levelling protesters with all manners of trumped-up charges is not new in the country particularly under the military but that Tinubu who is reputed for funding and participating in public protest against the government during and after military era could tolerate harassment of citizens protesting all forms of hardship under his government.
“He was very visible during the Occupy Nigeria protest of 2012. For somebody like that to be using state apparatus against ordinary street children is really traumatizing, unbecoming, unexpected and unacceptable,” he added.
NJC should not spare the judge who presided over the arraignment of under-age protesters—Ahamba, SAN
Commenting on the detention of the underage protesters in prison yards for over 90 days with hardened criminals, Chief Ahamba said: “For detaining children, the underage for three months in prison, I have nothing against the President on that issue. I have nothing against the judge who made the detention order.
“But I will be disturbed if the National Judicial Council, NJC, does not invite the judge for questioning because it is elementary that every lawyer knows that you don’t put underage people in custody with criminal adults. They are always put in the custody of either a parent or an uncle or somebody. You don’t send them to prison yard.
“That is what I believe every lawyer knows including anyone who purports to be a judge unless that person is purporting to be a lawyer. If he is a true lawyer, he should know. That is where Im concerned that a judge will allow that thing to happen under his or her charge.
“I mean whatever they did in government interest shouldn’t influence a judge. He should do what is right. Why keep underage in prison yards for months? Why? I’m very bitter. That is where I’m very concerned.
“It is for the legal profession to checkmate others. And if the legal profession now subjects itself to the vicissitude of the political class, then, we are in trouble in this country.
“So, the Attorney General of the Federation and the judge who made the order should be called to question by the Nigerian Bar Association and the National Judicial Council as the case may be. That is my position on that point,” he added.
Source: Vanguard
