Kogi Police Charge Buhari-Must-Go Protesters For Treasonable Felony, Arraign Them In Magistrate’s Office

The Kogi State Police Command continued in its deliberate harassment and intimidation of two Buhari-Must-Go protesters mobbed in the Lokoja area, by charging them for treasonable felony and public disturbance.

SaharaReporters learnt on Thursday that the duo – Larry Emmanuel and Victor Udoka – were not brought to court but tried in a Magistrate’s office and remanded in the Kabba prison.

The magistrate, it was further gathered, gave no adjourned date for the matter.

SaharaReporters had on Wednesday reported that the police secretly arraigned the two protesters and ensured that they were remanded at the Kabba Prison – without the knowledge of their lawyers or family members.

SaharaReporters had learnt that the charges on which they were arraigned were not made public.

“Larry was charged for inciting public disturbance. Victor was charged for treasonable felony. According to them, the judgment to remand them in prison wasn’t given in a court room. It was in the magistrate’s office at the Lugard’s magistrate court.

“The magistrate said their lawyer should apply for bail. They said it’s the judge in court 7 that gave the judgment. The accused weren’t allowed access to their phones to make calls. The magistrate threw them in prison and gave no adjourned date,” a source explained.

The police authorities backed by the Kogi State government have continued in their desperate attempts to frustrate the two protesters.

This is sequel to the torture which violent youths on Sunday gave the middle-aged protesters who were posting Buhari-Must-Go posters in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.

SaharaReporters had reported that the irate mob flogged the two youths, filmed them and brutalised them before they were later handed over to the police.

It had been gathered that the police thereafter quizzed the two protesters and detained them when they insisted on seeing their lawyer before making a statement.

“The lawyers have been there for two days now and the police haven’t produced them. The police commissioner in Kogi could not produce anti-Buhari protesters he claimed were in his custody after two days.

“We are hearing they were never returned to police custody after the police handed them over to thugs,” a source in Lokoja had told this newspaper. (SaharaReporters)