2 days Ago By Ejikeme Omenazu
LAGOS – The #EndBadGovernance Movement, Lagos State addressed a press conference on Wednesday 6 November 2024 at the International Press Centre (IPC) Ogba to respond to the recent discontinuation of suit and release of 114 protesters, including minors and to call for similar reprieve for all the remaining protesters in detention and on trial nationwide. During the press conference which also attracted several activist groups there was a call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to withdraw charges against all #End Bad Governance protesters in detention and on trial. The text of the four-page statement signed by Hassan Taiwo Soweto, Osugba Blessing, and Oloye Adegboyega-Adeniji for the Organising Committee, #Endbadgovernance Movement, Lagos State.
The event attracted activists from several groups an well as several mainstream media. According to Hassan Soweto who read the text of the state, the purpose of the press conference was to respond to the release of 114 detained protesters, including minors on Tuesday November 5, 2024 and to demand the dropping of charges against all the remaining protesters in detention and on trial. The group specifically mentioned Adaramoye Michael Lenin and 10 others whose trial for treason was scheduled to commence at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday November 8, 2024.
According to Soweto, the Movement received with great relief the news of the release of the 114 protesters, including the 32 children whose arraignment the previous Friday led to a national and global outrage. He stressed that the release of the minors and the 114 detainees was not a product of President Tinubu’s magnanimity, “rather it is a product of fear of the Nigerian people’s anger as well as the local and global outrage the situation generated due to the relentless campaign of groups and organisations which subjected the regime to a blistering criticism.” The Movement stressed: “Left to the President Tinubu regime, the children would not be released.
This is because the arrest and arraignment of the children for terrorism and treason was an important part of the regime’s toolkit of intimidation tactics aimed at striking fear into the heart of the Nigerian populace and anyone who dares to oppose its anti-poor policies. “Faced with the kind of mass uprising that erupted during the August protest, the regime needed very seriously to show that no one, not even children, would be spared its wrath. This is the only rational way to understand the fiasco we saw on national television and social media last week Friday when sick and malnourished children were dragged before a court of law to answer to charges of treason.
” As Soweto indicated, what changed the situation and caused the regime’s intimidation tactics to boomerang was the determined response of the Nigerian people. He said that by uniting to call out the regime, “we were able to force it to retreat and carry out a complete discharge of the protesters who as at last week had been locked up for over three months and slammed with grievous charges of treason which carries a death penalty. “So in every way, the release of the children is the first victory in our long term struggle to rid Nigeria of bad governance and the anti-poor and neo-liberal capitalist policies that have led to unprecedented levels of hunger and hardship for our people.
” The movement maintained that the release of the children cannot atone for the damage already done to them. It disclosed that during the nearly 100 days of their incarceration, the children were subjected to all kinds of ill-treatment, including starvation and torture. It said their rights as children were not respected in violation of all relevant provisions of the Child Rights Act as well as a host of international conventions protecting the rights of children.
The group lamented: “Not only were they detained in adult facilities and arraigned without protection for their privacy, the false and trumped up charges of terrorism and treason leveled against them are likely to haunt them for years to come. “To this extent, we demand a public apology by the government and payment of adequate compensation to the children and all detained protesters. We also call for the sack of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) under whose custody the children suffered untold ill-treatment, torture and starvation.
“We call for an independent probe panel composed of elected representatives of civil society organizations, trade unions and professional groups to investigate the circumstances surrounding the children’s ordeal with a view to identifying government and security officials that are directly responsible for their ill-treatment so they can be appropriately sanctioned.” Soweto stressed that the protest that erupted between August 1 to 10, 2024 due to the severe hunger and hardship unleased by the Federal Government’s anti-poor capitalist policies of subsidy removal, fuel price hike and currency devaluation, was a desperate cry by Nigerian people for answers to the roaring cost of living crisis. He informed that during the protest, about 40 peaceful protesters were killed by the police and other security agents.
He also stated that at least, about 2,100 protesters were arrested nationwide, out of which hundreds are still in jail and on trial in different parts of the country. He said: “For instance, on Monday November 4, 2024, 19 protesters, including three minors were arraigned at a Federal High Court in Maiduguri, Borno State, for terrorism and treason. Similarly, 11 protesters, Adaramoye Michael Lenin and 10 others, are due back at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday November 8,2024 for the commencement of their trial for treason.
” According to Soweto, when critically evaluated, the charges against the discharged 114 protesters and Adaramoye Michael Lenin and 10 others are broadly the same. He added that the cases against both batches of protesters are equally ridiculous as the proof of evidence is inadequate to sustain the charges against them. “For instance, Adaramoye Michael was arrested only because he happens to go by the nickname ‘Lenin’, which is Russian.
Lenin is the name of Vladimir Ilich, the leader of the Socialist revolution in Russia in October 1917. Being a Socialist and a member of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), Adaramoye Michael Lenin adopted this name as his nickname in line with the tradition in the students and activists movement in Nigeria. Michael has no relationship whatsoever with the Russian dictator, Putin, whose vicious capitalist regime is an antithesis of the aims of the Russian Socialist revolution of 1917.
” Soweto stressed that according to the charge sheets against the 11 defendants, the proof of evidence to sustain the six-count charge against them are the following: statement of the defendants, telephone of the suspects, forensic analysis of the telephones of the suspects and call data, Videos CD/DVD of the riot/inciting disturbance, Books/Placards, pamphlets recovered, Photographs of properties allegedly looted and some destroyed, CD/DVD/flash drive of government and other properties looted/destroyed, telephone call logs and handsets, CAC documents and other documents and any other relevant exhibits. He stressed: “For a group of defendants who are being tried for grievous offenses ranging from treason to mutiny, and intent to destabilise and levy war against Nigeria, you would have expected that the government would have been able to provide more convincing and incriminating evidence to prove its case like weapons and other indicators. “But, the truth of the matter is that the charges against the 11 protesters, just as the charges against the 114 including the children, are trumped up and false charges.
There is no iota of truth to these charges which Amnesty International has rightly described as a sham trial.” He maintained that all the defendants did was to participate in peaceful protests across the country between August 1 to 10, 2024 to demand an end to hunger and hardship. Her said: “If there was any grain of truth to the allegations, the regime would not have been able to withdraw the charges against the 114 protesters.
This is why we are now calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to withdraw charges against Adaramoye Michael Lenin, Mosiu Sodiq, Daniel Akande, Angel Love Innocent, Adeyemi Abiodun Abayomi, Buhari Lawal, Bashir Bello, Suleiman Yakubu, Opaoluwa Eleojo Simon, Nuradeen Khamis and Abdulsalam Zubairu as well as all other peaceful protesters in detention and on trial nationwide. “We also call for the meeting of the demands of the August protest, especially regarding the reversal of fuel price hike, electricity tariff hike, hike in food prices as well as all anti-poor policies. Without meeting these demands, President Tinubu should continue to expect to see more protests and demonstrations by the Nigerian people.
” However, to drive home their demand for the release of all #Endbadgovernance protesters on trial and in detention, the Movement declared Friday November 8, 2024, the day the trial of the 11 protesters for treason was scheduled to commence, ‘A day of solidarity’. The group urged the Nigerian people to demonstrate their support for the demand for freedom for all #Endbadgovernance protesters in detention and on trial. On their part, the activists said they had resolved to hold a peaceful rally that day.
According to them, the Friday November 8, 2024 rally which was scheduled to start by 7am would take off from Ikeja Under Bridge from where they were expected to march to submit a petition demanding dropping of charges against all protesters on trial and unconditional release of those in detention to the Chief Judge of Lagos state for onward transmission to the Chief Justice of Nigeria. Soweto stated: “We can also reliably inform you that the Nigerian Solidarity UK and other groups abroad are also planning a series of solidarity activities, including a protest at the Nigerian High Commission in London by 5.30 pm on Friday November 8 2024 to demand the release of all protesters on trial and in detention.
“Similar actions will take place at the Nigerian embassy in Berlin, Germany. So, in a sense, this is going to be a day of international solidarity to mount pressure on the Tinubu regime to release peaceful protesters and also meet our demands for answers to the cost of living crisis.” Concluding, Soweto assured that the group would not relent in its struggle to end bad governance in Nigeria.
He said that despite the intimidation and repression that the Movement has been facing, the struggle of the Nigerian people shall be victorious. Several other activists who spoke reiterated that “That there will be no retreat, no surrender” in the agitations for good governance and making the current Federal Government administration to have a human face so that Nigerians will be happy in their own country..
