A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, Bode George, has condemned the arraignment of no fewer than 76 protesters arrested during the last #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest in the country, many of them, being minors, a development that has generated public condemnation.
The minors, who were last Friday arraigned by the Inspector General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun before Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on 10 counts, including treason, incitement to mutiny by urging the military to remove President Bola Tinubu and other related charges, were visibly looking malnourished in a video which circulated online.
When the defendants were brought to the courtroom, four of them – the 8th, 66th, 69th, and 49th defendants – collapsed while moving to the dock.
They lay on the floor in pain, prompting lawyers and prison officers to assist them out of the courtroom.
George decried the detention and arraignment of the minors in court, describing it as “absolutely despicable”, “disgraceful”, and “shameful”.
He said the Inspector General of Police ought to have taken a decisive position on the detention of the minors and ordered appropriate actions in dealing with them, against what he described as the “wicked” and “inhumane” treatment meted to them.
“It is absolutely despicable, very wicked. These kids are underage, if they are members of their family would they do that to them? It’s utterly disgraceful, how can we be so wicked? We’ve left every sense of decency and humanity.
“Why would the IGP not direct somebody to revoke that, they had to be detained in a cell and then brought to court, to do what? Don’t we have juvenile court, what’s going on here? Does it mean we’ve lost every sense of decency as a nation? You know what happens when they lock people up in the cell. Why?” George said on Sunday.
“I detest it and would continue to detest it. It’s inhumane. It’s disgraceful,” he said.
The former military governor of old Ondo State traced the problems of the country to the multiplier effects of the mismanagement of the electoral process by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
George, however, said the call for the military in governance is unacceptable but maintained the failure of the government of the day was the major bait behind some people giving a spot for military intervention.
“We knew what we suffered during the military,” George said.
“It’s an unusual thing to happen. Yes, I know we haven’t reached the level where we would all be happy with civilian government. I went through the two (military and civilian governments) and have seen the two,” he said, mentioning power under the democratic system comes “from the base up – It belongs to the people.”
He said, “The major issue of disappointment in the country now is that INEC is not doing their job.”
“If they’re doing their job properly, and we know if we go through the electoral process, it is fair, the right people would be managing the government and then they would know they derive their power from the people.
“When you have an election, they manipulate the results manually and all kinds of things; so people who are not voted for emerge as the manager of the country. So how do we get the right thing?” he questioned.
He added “What is happening now is as a result of the type of the management of the electoral process. If whoever is there knows for sure that the people would play a major path in electing or denouncing him on the day of the election, he would wake up and work for the people, not fight for his pocket.”
He submitted that “the supervisors of our election must be fair, just, and must be equitable. Those are the tripods of a stabilised government.”
The organisers of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests had vowed not to back down from the struggle of protesting worsening conditions in the Country.
They vowed, despite treason charges levelled against arrested protesters, to sustain momentum in protest until the ruling class in Nigeria prioritises the interest of Nigerians, mentioning that given the prevailing conditions in the country, Nigerians now “should be sleeping on the streets” in protest
