A Senior Magistrate Court in Kano State has dismissed the First Information Report (FIR) against 37 protesters arrested during the recent #EndBadGovernance protests. The court, presided over by Senior Magistrate Ibrahim Abubakar Mansur, made this ruling in what is seen as a significant step towards addressing concerns about the arrest and detention of peaceful protesters in the state.<\/p>\n
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In addition to dismissing the charges for these 37 individuals, the court also granted bail to 48 other protesters. However, the bail conditions set by the court were described as stringent, requiring each of the released protesters to deposit a sum of N1,000,000 (One Million Naira) at the Registry of the Kano State High Court. Furthermore, they are each mandated to provide two reliable sureties as part of the conditions for their release.<\/p>\n
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The protesters are being represented by a coalition of legal professionals and human rights organizations, including the Centre for Human Rights and Social Advancement (CEFSAN), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). These organizations have been at the forefront of advocating for the rights of the protesters, emphasizing the importance of peaceful demonstrations and the need to protect citizens\u2019 constitutional rights.<\/p>\n
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Speaking after the court ruling, a representative from CEFSAN described the bail conditions as “unduly harsh” but expressed relief that the protesters were being granted their freedom, albeit conditionally. \u201cWhile we commend the court\u2019s decision to dismiss the FIR against 37 of the protesters, we must continue to work towards ensuring that justice is fully served, and the rights of all Nigerians are upheld,\u201d the representative added.<\/p>\n
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This ruling comes on the heels of a similar development in the Gyadi-Gyadi district of Kano State, where a Senior Magistrate Court had previously discharged 36 protesters unconditionally, while granting bail to 35 others under less stringent conditions. The coordinated legal efforts by human rights organizations and the Nigerian Bar Association have played a crucial role in securing these favorable outcomes, although concerns remain about the use of financial bail conditions as a deterrent to lawful protest.<\/p>\n
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The case has now been adjourned to September 18, 2024, for further mention. As the protests against bad governance continue to gain momentum across Nigeria, there are growing calls for the government and law enforcement agencies to engage in meaningful dialogue with protesters, rather than resorting to mass arrests and punitive measures.<\/p>\n
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Many activists and legal experts believe that the court\u2019s decisions may set an important legal precedent, especially regarding the rights of Nigerians to peacefully assemble and protest against perceived injustices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Senior Magistrate Court in Kano State has dismissed the First Information Report (FIR) against 37 protesters arrested during the recent #EndBadGovernance protests. The court, presided over by Senior Magistrate Ibrahim Abubakar Mansur, made this ruling in what is seen as a significant step towards addressing concerns about the arrest and detention of peaceful protesters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48556","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=48556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48557,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48556\/revisions\/48557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}