#EndBadGovernance: Group calls for release of detainees,cites lack of evidence

The Initiative Against Human Rights Abuse and Torture, a civil society organisation, has called for the release of all detainees arrested in connection with the August #EndBadGovernance protests.

In a statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, the coordinator of the group, Gerald Katchy, said the police are only struggling to find crimes to charge the protesters with.

Mr Katchy noted that waving Russian flags for which some of the protesters were arrested was not a crime.

“The charges are even more flimsy for the hundred or so people who are still being held at the Inspector General of Police’s IRT offices and Kuje prison.

“The police case is even weaker for the approximately 104 detainees still held at their Intelligence Response Team (IR) offices and Kuje prison in Abuja in connection with EndBadGovernance protests,” he said.

The detainees were accused of other serious crimes including terrorism and treason, a development many have condemned as an extreme step to criminalise exercise of constitutionally guaranteed right to protest.

The group, therefore, asked the police to release all the protesters detained over the August protests.

It said the detainees include at least 17 underage persons who have spent some days in police custody before securing a court order to detain them for an additional 60 days. Curiously, the Federal High Court in Abuja granted an order remanding the underage persons along with the adults for 60 days.

The rights group also called on other organisations to join the campaign to “call on the police and other security agencies to respect the right of the people to freely express their rejection” of the obnoxious policies of President Tinubu.

Govt prosecuting EndBadGovernance protesters

Nigerians across different cities took to the streets demanding an end to bad governance and high cost of living in the first 10 days of August.

The nationwide protests turned violent in some cities where police tear-gassed protesters and hundreds of others in connection with the protest.

Security operatives also clamped down on journalists who covered the demonstration.

READ ALSO: #EndBadGovernance: Organisers speak ahead of 1 October protest

The Nigerian government is currently prosecuting 10 protesters arrested in connection with last month’s demonstrations on charges of war plotting and an attempt to topple President Bola Tinubu. The trial court granted them bail but not all of them have met the bail conditions to be released.