Human Rights activist, Femi Falana, SAN, has asked the Police to charge the protesters remanded in custody to court before August 25 or face legal action.
Also, Falana accused the authorities of preventing the legal representation of the protesters, leading to their being remanded in prison.
According to him, “Out of the 2,111 arrested suspects, 1,403 have been arraigned in various courts. Painfully, the suspects were ordered to be remanded in prison custody due to a lack of legal representation.
“The suspects were denied legal representation even though the Nigerian Bar Association had publicly announced its intention to provide lawyers to defend them.
“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 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.”
Ultimatum
On the arraignment, Falana said: “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.
“However, if all the suspects are not charged before August 25, 2024, the Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond, ASCAB, will approach the Federal High Court to demand their immediate release.
“ASCAB has also resolved to defend the cases filed against the protests by two state governments and the Federal Capital Territory.
“More fundamentally, it’s important to remind the Nigerian state again that beyond legalism, the solution to the political problem of which protests are mere symptoms lie in the honest application of socio-economic justice.
“Elements of this socio-economic justice include policy instruments fashioned to fight hunger, ignorance, disease and the scandalous inequality which define the Nigerian society today.”
