#EndBadGovernance: Court orders remand of 10 protesters over reasonable felony charges

The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered on Monday the remand of 10 #EndBadGovernance protesters accused of plotting a war against Nigeria and attempting to topple President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The judge, Emeka Nwite, gave the order following the arraignment of the protesters on six charges filed against them by the Nigerian police.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the six counts, after which their lawyers applied for their release on bail.

But the prosecutor, Simon Lough, opposed the bail applications.

The judge then ordered the remand of the defendants in prison pending the ruling on their bail application on 11 September.

While he remanded nine of them in the Kuje Correctional Centre, he ordered the tenth person and the only woman among them to be detained at the Suleja Correctional Centre.

The defendants include Michael Tobiloba Adaramoye (aka Lenin), 28 years old; Adeyemi Abiodun Abayomi (aka Yomi), 34 years old; Suleiman Yakubu, 28 years old; Opaluwa Eleojo Simeon, 50 years old; and Angel Love Innocent (the only female among them), 51 years old.

Hearing

At Monday’s proceedings, the lawyer to the first to the fourth defendants, Abubakar Marshall from Falana and Falana’s Chambers, urged the judge to grant bail to his clients on liberal terms.

He said the prosecution lacked concrete evidence to prove the charges against them.

Other defence lawyers similarly urged the judge to grant bail to their clients.

Deji Adeyanju, who represented the sixth to the eighth defendants, maintained that the “confessional statements” and proof of evidence relied on by the police to file the charges are unrelated to the allegations of treasonable felony levelled in the charges.

He said none of the defendants were criminals and assured the judge they would not jump bail if their applications were granted.

Mr Adeyanju said the Inspector General of Police should instead go after bandits and kidnappers terrorising Nigerians instead of his defendants, who he described as patriotic citizens demanding good governance.

The defence lawyers for the fifth, ninth and tenth defendants also urged the court to grant bail to their clients.

However, the prosecution counsel, Simon Lough, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, opposed the bail applications, urging the court to deny them bail and remand them to the correction centre.

After listening to the lawyers’ arguments, the presiding judge, Mr Nwite, ordered the defendants’ remand and adjourned the case until 11 September for a ruling.

Before their arraignment on Monday, the defendants had spent more than three weeks in police custody following their arrests in Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna between 1 and 10 August.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the protesters pleaded not guilty to all six charges read to them on Monday.

The Nigerian police filed the charges on Friday as the government cranked up its clampdown on protesters and the organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protests held in major cities around the country from 1 to 10 August.

According to the charges, the 10 protesters, allegedly acting in concert with Andrew Martin Wynee (aka Andrew Povish), a 70-year-old British citizen, “called on the military to take over the government from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”.

The prosecution also accused the defendants of inciting citizens to destabilise Nigeria through the protests.

In another grievous allegation, the government accused the protesters of acting in concert with Mr Wynee to wage “war against the state”.

According to the charges, the protesters did this by attacking and injuring police officers and burning police stations, the High Court Complex, NCC Complex, Kano Printing Press, Government House Kano, Kaduna Investment and Promotions Agency Office, NURTW Office and “several other buildings”.

The police said the offence is contrary to section 410 of the Penal Code (Northern States) Federal Provisions Act.