The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF has asked the Federal Government to halt the treason trial of #EndBadGovernance protesters who are mostly minors.
The ACF described the trial as a show of shame and a demonstration of needless official high-handedness at its worst.
A statement signed by the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, said the very insensitive words of the prosecuting attorney and those of the Inspector-General of the Police were just as distressing, amounting to an attempt to rationalize the mis-action, adding to the absurdity of the sham trial.
“A telling symptom of a justice system gone wild is that the suspects were offered bail for the sum of N10 million each plus some other stringent conditions.
“Equally unsettling was the dramatic departure from the Court of the presiding judge on sighting some of the under-aged detainees collapsing from hunger and suffering.”
According to the statement, ACF views these citizens as victims of the Nigerian criminal justice administration system and mindless bureaucracy.
“From their looks, most of the detainees cannot raise as little as N10,000 to post bail.
”The ACF joins other Nigerians, national and international human rights groups to strongly condemn the ‘charade of a trial and naked, strong-arm tactic, reminiscent of strategies employed by authoritarian and intolerant but weak regimes aimed at muscling citizens’”.
The group also demanded the FG to investigate the circumstances that led to the detention of the suspects for over three months, beyond the constitutional limits of 24 hours
It also demanded financial compensation to the detainees for their unnecessary and unjustified detention for over three months, provision of medical examination, treatment and professional psychological evaluation and counselling for them.
It also called for a re-evaluation of the strategies for processing protests strictly in line with constitutional due processes, principles of good governance and international best practices.
