Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, on Thursday, said the police will likely have a hard time prosecuting the 783 persons arrested for waving the Russian flag during the recent hunger protest.
In a statement on Thursday, Falana said he wondered how the police would convince the court that the act of waving a foreign flag constituted an offence, in a country where hotels and churches hoist foreign flags on their premises.
“The offence allegedly committed by the 783 suspects arrested in Kano is that they displayed the Russian flag during the protest. A tailor who was sewing the flag was also arrested by the police. It may be difficult to press charges against the suspects in a country where the flags of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and other European countries are hoisted by the majority of hotels in Nigeria while churches hoist the flag of Israel based on the erroneous belief that it is a Christian country.”
Falana also said the seven Polish students arrested in Kano while taking pictures could be charged with espionage to justify that the protests had the support of foreign interest groups.
He said, “Seven Polish students who were taking part in an exchange programme at Bayero University, Kano, were arrested for taking photographs during the protest. They may be charged with espionage to give the impression that the protests were instigated by foreign interest groups.”
The senior lawyer said it would be difficult to press charges against the suspects arrested for waving foreign flags in the country.
According to Falana, a total of 2,111 individuals were arrested during the 10-day nationwide hunger or #EndBadGovernance protests.
Giving a breakdown of the figures of arrested protesters, Falana said 873 protesters were arrested in Kano, 403 in Jigawa, Katsina,120; Gombe, 111; Sokoto, 110 and Borno, 99, among others.
He said, “Notwithstanding the official recognition of the fundamental right of the Nigerian people to protest against unpopular policies of governments, the security forces have continued to clamp down on protesters in many states of the federation.
“During the protests, a total of 2,111 people were arrested in the following states and the Federal Capital Territory: Kano 873; Jigawa 403; Katsina 120;
Gombe 111; Sokoto–110; Borno 99; Yobe 90; Bauchi 60; Plateau 51; Kaduna 50; FCT 50; Nasarawa 40; Niger 25; Zamfara 19 and Cross Rivers State10.”
Falana regretted that “out of the 2,111 arrested suspects, 1,403 have been arraigned in various courts. Painfully, the suspects were ordered to be remanded in prison custody due to a lack of legal representation.
“The suspects were denied legal representation even though the Nigerian Bar Association had publicly announced its intention to provide lawyers to defend them.
“We have also confirmed that individual lawyers who had applied for the bail of the detained suspects in police stations were not informed that they were going to be arraigned in the courts.”
Falana said the government’s decision to deny the suspects legal representation was contrary to the provision of Section 36 of the constitution and other charters Nigeria is a signatory to.
He said, “We submit that the decision by the authorities to deny the suspects legal representation constitutes a violent breach of their fundamental right to fair hearing guaranteed by Section 36 of the Constitution and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.
“This is highly discriminatory and illegal on the grounds that politically exposed persons who are arrested for looting the treasury to the tune of several billions of naira are usually informed in advance of the dates and of their arraignment in the courts. Such highly placed suspected looters are always granted bail in liberal terms and even authorised by trial judges to travel abroad for medical treatment.”
He also raised the alarm that security agencies had taken advantage of the protest to arrest radical citizens.
Falana said, “It does appear that the security forces have decided to take advantage of the anti-government protests to clamp down on radical citizens and thereby exposed the country to unprecedented ridicule. For instance, Comrade Michael Adaramoye (a.k.a. Lenin) has been held in detained for over three weeks in the anti-robbery department of the Nigeria Police Force in Abuja because he answers to the police sobriquet “Lenin”. Comrades Elejo Opaluwa and Mosiu Abolaji are also detained in the same police station for belonging to a socialist organisation that supported the protest.”(Punch)
