The Northern Youths Meeting has referred to as on President Bola Tinubu to right away withdraw all costs in opposition to minors dealing with trial for allegedly taking part within the current #EndBadGovernance protests.
In an announcement issued in Kano on Saturday, the group urged the President to “launch these boys unconditionally to keep away from additional embarrassment to the Authorities and to the Nigerian legal justice system, within the curiosity of equity, upholding the rule of legislation, and rules of democracy.”
A few of the minors, detained by the police since August, reportedly collapsed within the Federal Excessive Court docket in Abuja on Friday as they had been dropped at the courtroom from numerous police detention facilities, together with the Intelligence Response Crew.
The assertion, signed by the Meeting’s President, Dr. Ali Idris Mohammed, and Secretary Basic, Dr. Garba Abdulhafiz, learn, “The Nationwide Management of the Northern Youth Meeting (Majalisar Matasan Arewa), on behalf of the Nineteen Northern States Chapters, needs to unequivocally categorical our dismay over the content material of a viral video exhibiting underage kids wanting hungry, depressed, exhausted, and malnourished, arraigned earlier than the excessive courtroom in Abuja on costs of elevating overseas flags throughout an anti-government protest held from August 1 to 10, 2024, nationwide.”
The group said, “We imagine the occasions in courtroom symbolize an additional blow to the little integrity left within the Nigerian judiciary and legal justice system. That is devastating, heartbreaking, and appalling.”
In line with the Meeting, Nigerian legal legislation mandates that every one legal circumstances be introduced earlier than the courtroom inside 48 hours, and any deviation infringes on suspects’ basic rights, “besides below strict directions from a reliable courtroom of legislation.”
The assertion criticized the extended detention of “helpless and impoverished kids by Federal Authorities authorities, which not solely disregards the legal guidelines of the land but additionally threatens the way forward for these younger people and, in excessive circumstances, endangers their lives.”
The Meeting argued that the show of overseas flags by residents throughout protests has grow to be a worldwide apply, signifying public dissatisfaction with their authorities.
The assertion continued, “It’s clear to us that this Authorities has assumed the standing of an undemocratic regime, disregarding the extant legal guidelines of the land and systematically remodeling into an authoritarian administration characterised by nepotism, favoritism, and ill-will towards sure sections of the nation.”
The Meeting cited the current protest in London led by Yoruba Nation advocate Mr. Sunday Igboho, the place he brazenly declared the Yoruba Nation’s intent to secede from Nigeria and submitted a petition to the UK Prime Minister, with out dealing with arrest.
They additional criticized the APC authorities’s resolution to start the trial of minors detained in August for protesting what they referred to as the APC’s poor governance. “A few of these younger protesters appeared in courtroom visibly malnourished, with many collapsing from starvation and sickness after enduring over 90 days of extended detention by Nigerian authorities.”
The group described the sight of “ravenous youths detained merely for talking out” as an affront to the legal justice system, humanity, and democracy.
They concluded, “It’s each unacceptable and deeply disquieting that kids, minors, and younger Nigerians have been held since August over unfounded allegations of making an attempt to destabilize the federal government, exposing a disturbing disregard for the rights and welfare of those younger folks as Nigerians.”
