Human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), has charged the Federal Government to reintegrate and send all minors arrested during the #EndBadGovernance protests to school.
He vowed to take the Federal Government to court if the minors were not sent to school, insisting that the withdrawal of the case was not enough.
#Endbadgovernance Protest: Arrest, Detention, Trial Of Minors Unacceptable – AYCF
Falana made the call while reviewing a book titled: “Judiciary Terrorism” by Richard Akinnola in Abuja on Tuesday.
The legal luminary said that the government was too embarrassed to bring another set of individuals, including 29 minors, to court after Friday’s public outcry.
He said, “Just this morning before this programme commenced, I was in the courts in Abuja, here, where 119 Nigerians, including 29 minors, were brought to court. But the government was so ashamed that it couldn’t take them to the courtroom, unlike last week.
“The government came to the court this morning to withdraw the frivolous charges. So, the young people have been freed.
“But as I did say to the court, it’s not enough to terminate this trial. These young people, who ordinarily should have been in school during the protests, must be rehabilitated by the government. And we are going to ensure that they are rehabilitated and sent to school.
“If the government fails, we are going to court to sue the government because it is the responsibility of the government, by virtue of the Child’s Rights law, which has been adopted and enacted into law by all the states of the Federation. Section 15 of that law provides that every child in Nigeria shall be given free and compulsory education from primary to secondary school. “
In his remarks, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, said the worst period in the country’s history was over, and urged citizens to remain united.
Bishop Kukah noted that many issues arise in the country because many citizens do not understand what it means to be without a nation and encouraged Nigerians to look at places like Gaza and Lebanon and stop turning against one another.
Kukah said, “We might assume, and I think we are going to assume, that the worst times in our history are over. But let us remain eternally together because what we have and what we hold is a treasure.
“This is a heck of a country, and it’s a great country. People have laid down their lives for this country. I used to say to Nigerians, you know, we are just joking because we don’t know what it is to be without a country.
“What did the people of Gaza do? What did the people of Lebanon do? What did the people of Valencia do? We are hearing stories of earthquakes and incredible things happening that are sweeping the lives of hundreds of thousands of people daily.
“But in Nigeria, it is us who are collectively turning the knife on ourselves. So I think that going forward, the most important thing for you as a Christian is to develop the spirit of forgiveness, and that nothing will happen that is outside the boundary of the divine will of God.”
Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, who was represented by Owei Lakemfa at the event, lamented that after 32 years of civil rule, the country’s judicial system still has military parasites in its blood and system.
He said, “When the (President Muhammadu) Buhari administration in 2019 was not sure it could control the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, it got the Code of Conduct Tribunal to accuse him of alleged false asset declaration. That way, it got rid of the CJN. It was not until November 2024 that he was discharged and acquitted.”
In response to Odinkalu’s comment, former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Lucky Irabor (retd) said the military should not be painted in the negative because few personnel misused their powers.
He said no one is taught how to plot a coup or abuse power in the military.
Irabor said, “When you talk about military terrorism, the connotation to the public is that the military, as we have it in the Nigerian military, is capable of engaging in ignoble acts. There are people, including civilians, who misuse power. So when power is misused, it does not imply, just like we also have in the judiciary, it is not the broad brush of the judiciary that should be painted in the negative.
“Rather, it should be that individuals within the judiciary must be pointed out, in the hope that it will address issues that have to do with the judiciary and justice service.
“So for me, while thanking all the good work that many of you have done great work in the past to ensure that we have democracy, and once we ensure that never again shall we have the kind of ignoble occurrences that have led to the writing of this book, involving some members of the military, that the military remains an institution, an establishment for the Nigerian people. It is not the military as an establishment that engages in abnormalities.”
“There is nowhere in our training, in our curriculum, that you will be taught how to conduct coups, no or how to misuse power. It does not exist.”
