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November 2, 2024
According to him, the law of the country allows that children of thirteen years of age be tried in court.
The Nigeria Police Force has insisted that it did no wrong in arraigning minors at the Federal High Court in Abuja over their alleged role in the #EndBadGovernance protests despite the national and global outrage which greeted the incident.
The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, stated this during an interview with Channels TV on Friday.
According to him, the law of the country allows that children of thirteen years of age be tried in court.
This is even as he failed to address their state of malnutrition when they were brought to the court.
“The fact that you are thirteen years old does not mean you cannot be charged to court, even the child and young persons act says a thirteen year old can be charged to court.” he argued.
“So we have charged them to court for this on behalf of the federal government, because these are those who are leveraged on the #Endbadgovernance protest, they hijacked the protest and they are so violent, they were the people that were flying Russian flags which of course is a punishable offence, they are criminally liable, we have not charged any underaged in our own context here to court,” he further stated in the interview.
This development comes amid outrage by different groups, stakeholders on the action of the government.
Several human rights groups have condemned the government action, stating that the government should be concerned about bandits than putting children behind the bar.
They expressed shock at the arraignment of 67 minors by the Nigeria Police Force at a court in Abuja, for alleged participation in the #EndBadGovernance protest.
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SaharaReporters had reported that the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, requested for the case file of the #EndBadGovernance protesters arraigned by the Nigerian police on Friday, including underage children, some of whom colapsed in the courtroom.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that President Bola Tinubu had ordered the Minister of Justice, Fagbemi, to review the treasonable felony charges brought against the underage and malnourished children before the Federal High Court in Abuja which has attracted national and global outrage.
SaharaReporters on Friday evening learnt that Tinubu ordered the AGF to review the cases and make recommendations accordingly after the Nigerian presidency came under scrutiny for maltreating underage children accused of bogus charges for participating in the #EndBadGovernance protest.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that the court presided over by Justice Obiora Egwuatu, granted stringent bail conditions to over 70 persons, including minors, for their alleged roles in the #EndBadGovernance protest held in August 2024.
The children have been taken back to Kuje Prison following difficulties in meeting their bail conditions.
The court granted each of the defendants N10 million bail among other stringent terms.
However, one of the counsels for the protesters, Deji Adeyanju, lamented that the stringent bail conditions imposed by the court on the protesters meant they had to be taken back to prison custody.
Human rights and advocacy groups across the country have accused President Tinubu of running a cruel, heinous and punitive government.
The groups said this in separate statements issued on Friday while condemning the continued detention and prosecution of the #EndBadGovernance protesters.
The groups demanded unconditional release of all detained protesters, especially minors; immediate suspension of all exorbitant bail conditions granted to the protesters; transparent investigation into the maltreatment of underage detainees, including starvation, physical abuse, and psychological trauma at IRT and other detention centres, and an end to the criminalisation of protests and dissent voices in the country.
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