The Nigerian federal government is preparing to arraign 76 protesters who participated in the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria demonstrations, a full 80 days after their arrest. Of these, 66 are minors, according to prominent activist lawyer Deji Adeyanju. The court hearing is scheduled for November 1, 2024, at the Federal High Court in Abuja.<\/p>\n
Adeyanju revealed this development in a brief statement on Friday, criticizing the prolonged detention of the protesters and questioning the rationale behind prosecuting minors for peaceful protests.<\/p>\n
“After detaining End Bad Governance protesters for almost 80 days, the clueless Tinubu government is set to arraign more protesters, who are largely minors, as can be seen on the charge herein annexed, on November 1st in Abuja,” Adeyanju said. He further noted that the protesters, including the minors, would be brought before Hon. Justice Egwuatu in Court 10, on the 4th floor of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.<\/p>\n
The protests that led to the arrests were part of a nationwide movement from August 1 to 10, 2024, during which Nigerians took to the streets to demand better governance, improved transparency, and accountability from the government. The demonstrations echoed the spirit of the earlier #EndSARS protests, but this time, they centered more broadly on poor governance, rising corruption, and the deteriorating state of the economy under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.<\/p>\n
Critics have condemned the government’s response to the protests, citing it as an attempt to silence dissent and criminalize peaceful assembly, particularly targeting minors. Adeyanju and other activists are calling on the government to drop all charges and release the protesters immediately.<\/p>\n
Civil society organizations and international human rights groups have also expressed concern over the situation. Amnesty International, in a recent statement, urged the Nigerian government to respect the rights of the detained individuals and ensure they receive a fair trial. The organization also highlighted the worrying trend of using legal processes to intimidate protesters and activists in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The arraignment of these 76 individuals, especially the 66 minors, raises questions about Nigeria’s legal framework concerning the rights of minors and the ethical implications of prosecuting young people for participating in peaceful protests. Analysts have warned that this move could further stoke tensions between the government and the youth, many of whom feel disillusioned and alienated by the current administration.<\/p>\n
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The Nigerian federal government is preparing to arraign 76 protesters who participated in the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria demonstrations, a full 80 days after their arrest. Of these, 66 are minors, according to prominent activist lawyer Deji Adeyanju. The court hearing is scheduled for November 1, 2024, at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Adeyanju revealed this development […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-52653","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\/52653","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=52653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52656,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52653\/revisions\/52656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}