Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has condemned the federal government for arraigning minors who participated in the #EndBadGovernance protest.<\/p>\n
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja arraigned 76 detained #EndBadGovernance protesters, most of whom were malnourished minors.<\/p>\n
Justice Obiora Egwuatu granted the minors bail of \u20a610 million each out of the 76 arraigned for participating in the August 2024 EndBadGovernance protests.<\/p>\n
In his reaction, Atiku pointed out that the arraignment is reminiscent of a Nazi concentration camp, highlighting the low premium the current government places on the lives of vulnerable individuals, especially children.<\/p>\n
He wrote on X, \u201cA disturbing video of malnourished children being arraigned before a Federal High Court on the orders of the Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government has been brought to my notice.<\/p>\n
“The horrible scene, reminiscent of a Nazi concentration camp, once again reflects the low premium the current government places on the lives of the vulnerable, especially children.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor emphasis, Section 11 of the Child\u2019s Rights Act guarantees the dignity of the child, stating that, \u2018Every child is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly, no child shall be subjected to physical, mental or emotional injury, abuse, neglect or maltreatment, including sexual abuse; (b) subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe children are being prosecuted for their alleged role in the #EndBadGovernance protests, which took place between August 1 and August 10, 2024. If they are just being arraigned three months later, one can only imagine the sort of dehumanizing conditions they have been subjected to during their detention all this while.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it reprehensible that a man who claims to have fought for Nigeria\u2019s democracy and led protests now demonizes those who decide to demonstrate against the effects of his harsh and draconian policies.<\/p>\n
“Children, who are the most affected by these policies, have every right to protest peacefully, as guaranteed by the Constitution and the Child Rights Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cA nation can be assessed by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens. It is saddening that even underage children are not spared from the wickedness of T Pain.<\/p>\n
“The disturbing condition under which the alleged accused children were brought to court projects the very justification for their participation in the protest in the first place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has condemned the federal government for arraigning minors who participated in the #EndBadGovernance protest. A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja arraigned 76 detained #EndBadGovernance protesters, most of whom were malnourished minors. Justice Obiora Egwuatu granted the minors bail of \u20a610 million each out of the 76 arraigned for participating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":54465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54463","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\/54463","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54463"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54497,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54463\/revisions\/54497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}