#EndBadGovernance Protest: 2,111 detained, 1,403 in prison, says Femi Falana
Nigeria’s leading human rights legal icon, Femi Falana, SAN, has disclosed that a 10-day protest against bad governance, held from August 1st to 10th, led to the arrest of over 2,111 demonstrators across the nation.
In a concerning development, 1,403 of the protesters have been covertly arraigned in court and remanded in prison custody due to a lack of legal representation.
This comes despite the Nigerian Bar Association’s public commitment to provide legal defense for the accused.
Among the arrested are seven Polish students who were taking part in an exchange programme at Bayero University, Kano.
Falana, who is also the Chair, Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond, ASCAB, disclosed this in a statement as he urged the government to charge the arrested protesters to court for immediate legal proceedings.
In the statement, entitled ‘HALT THE CLAMPDOWN ON PROTESTERS’, Falana also said: “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.”
Commenting on the arrested protesters, Falana demanded that “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.”
The human rights lawyer gave a breakdown of the distribution of protesters arrested across the states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
- 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
- Cross Rivers — 10
He added that, “We have also confirmed that individual lawyers who had applied for the 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 the 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.
“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 sowing 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 the majority of hotels in Nigeria while Churches hoist the flag of Israel based on the erroneous belief that it is a Christian country.”
