The Arewa Broadcast Media Practitioners’ Forum has condemned the arraignment of 76 #EndBadGovernance protesters, majorly minors, at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, calling on the federal government to arrest their sponsors.
The Forum, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Yelwa, said it shares the repulsion and disbelief of Nigerians, after seeing physically terrorized and malnourished youth being arraigned on charges including high treason against the Nigerian state, describing it as “irresponsible act of inhumanity by the police.”
Tribune Online reports that six of the minors among the 76 suspects arraigned for involvement in August #EndBadGovernance protest collapsed in Court before the commencement of trial on Friday.
According to it, the act will forever be a stain on our national consciousness as a so-called democratic country.
“We therefore condemn in strongest terms this inhuman treatment matted on fellow Nigerians, whose only crime was exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights to protest.
“The revelation by the government that it had uncovered the identity of the sponsors of the #EndBadGovernance protest, made the prosecution of these boys, who probably attended the protests out of childish curiosity, laughable, though tragic,” the statement partly reads.
Continuing, the Arewa broadcasters called on the Federal Government to arrest and prosecute anyone found culpable for the detention and mistreatment of these children.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that Nigeria under President Tinubu is fast becoming a police state where the rights of the citizens are daily being trampled upon.
“Critical national institutions like the judiciary, police and other security services, designed for the protection of the rights of the citizens, have been turned into mere tools for the oppression of the masses.
“As observed recently by the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON), even the press has not been spared, with journalists being regularly arrested for no just reason.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the causes of the social upheaval being witnessed in the country are directly attributable to the destabilizing and debilitating effects of the policies of the President,” it added.
According to the forum, Nigerians have been pouperized beyond measure, with people daily dieing of hunger. “They will therefore continue to protest, especially as the government appears to be insensitive to their plight.”
The statement however called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to order the “immediate release of these protesters and arrest and prosecute the real sponsors of the protest if there are any. These physically tormented terrorized boys, scavenging for food in the temple of justice, to any right thinking mind, are not capable of high treason against Nigeria.
“The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1984, clearly states that no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Unfortunately, Nigeria has failed to uphold this convention, and the recent arraignment of youth and juveniles is a stark reminder of this failure.”
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