Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Human Rights Activist, Femi Falana has implored the Nigerian government to charge remanded protesters to court, News About Nigeria reports.
According to him, no fewer than 2,111 protesters were arrested during the 10-day #EndBadGovernance protest across the country that was held from August 1st to 10th.
Falana further revealed that 1,403 of those arrested have been remanded in prison custody due to a lack of legal representation.
The senior advocate made the revelation in a statement titled ‘Halt the Clampdown on Protesters,’ which was released on Thursday.
In the statement, Falana gave the government an ultimatum to charge them to court.
He 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.
“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 of 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.”
