The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted bail to ten members of the #EndBadGovernance protest group, who were charged with attempting to overthrow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu between July 1 and August 4, 2024. The protesters were admitted to bail by Justice Emeka Nwite, who presided over their case and ruled on their bail applications on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Each of the ten protesters was granted bail set at \u20a610 million, with specific conditions attached to their release. According to the court ruling, the defendants must provide one surety each in the same amount, and the sureties must be residents of Abuja. Furthermore, these sureties are required to own property within the capital city and deposit the property documents with the court, in addition to swearing an affidavit of means to guarantee their financial standing.<\/p>\n
As part of the bail conditions, both the defendants and their sureties are required to deposit their international passports and submit three recent passport-sized photographs to the court. Justice Nwite also imposed a restriction on the protesters, forbidding them from participating in any public rallies throughout the duration of their trial.<\/p>\n
In response to the defense’s bail applications, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) opposed the request, arguing that the severity of the charges warranted continued detention. However, Justice Nwite rejected the IGP\u2019s objections and ordered that the protesters be released once they meet their bail conditions. Until their bail is fully processed, the judge ordered that the defendants remain in prison custody.<\/p>\n
The trial for the accused protesters is set to begin on September 27, 2024, where they will face serious charges, including treason, under sections 96, 410, and 413 of the Penal Code. The charges stem from allegations that the protesters incited violence during their week-long nationwide demonstrations, during which they allegedly attempted to overthrow the Nigerian government by encouraging a military takeover.<\/p>\n
According to the prosecution, the accused broke into the Abacha Army Barracks and openly called for the military to assume control of the government. It was further alleged that the protesters tried to force their way into sensitive government areas, setting fire to a police station and injuring several law enforcement officers in the process.<\/p>\n
The Inspector General of Police also accused the protesters of inciting the public against the government and being responsible for the destruction of public property, including a police station, a High Court complex, and facilities belonging to the National Communication Commission (NCC).<\/p>\n
The ten defendants, identified as Michael Tobiloba Adaramoye, Adeyemi Abiodun Abayomi, Suleiman Yakubu, Opaluwa Eleojo Simon, Angel Love Innocent, Buhari Lawal, Mosiu Sadiq, Bashir Bello Nurudeen, Khamis Abduldalam, and Zubair, have maintained that their protests were peaceful demonstrations aimed at drawing attention to governance issues in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
While the bail decision is seen as a temporary reprieve for the protesters, the charges they face remain significant. Treason is one of the most serious offenses in Nigerian law, and if convicted, the protesters could face severe penalties, including long-term imprisonment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted bail to ten members of the #EndBadGovernance protest group, who were charged with attempting to overthrow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu between July 1 and August 4, 2024. The protesters were admitted to bail by Justice Emeka Nwite, who presided over their case and ruled on their bail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-48155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48156,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48155\/revisions\/48156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}