Several youths from Kogi State yesterday marched in Abuja in a May Day solidarity walk for Nigerian children to press home their disappointment with the handling of the allegations of corruption against the immediate past governor of Kogi State Yahaya Bello by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The youths decried what they called the systemic violation of the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the former governor’s children, “who have nothing whatsoever to do with whatever the Commission is investigating their parents for.”
The president of the Kogi Independent Youths Association, Comrade Mohammed Abdulrazak, who led the walk, said, “Let it be on record that we do not support corruption in any manner. What we are against is not following due processes to carry out law enforcement duties, especially when you begin to drag innocent children into the fray. This can damage them psychologically for life.
“Children don’t play politics. Children can’t be punished for the sins of their parents even when such has been proven. Nobody deserves to be punished for a crime they know nothing about, not to talk of innocent children.
“Today’s rally is the first in the series of actions we have laid out until justice is done in this matter. All these concerns will be presented to the National Human Rights Commission any moment from now for appropriate intervention especially to protect the rights of the innocent children who have been dragged into this political war by the EFCC.”
He added, “As educated youths who are versed in the practice and procedures concerning the arrest, arraignment, and prosecution of an accused person, the due process of the law is sacrosanct and must be duly adhered to and complied with.
“Former Governor Yahaya Bello has not been shown any fairness, which is a cardinal principle of law. He has not been served with the notice of charges against him, or arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction by the EFCC, but he has already been arraigned, tried, and convicted by the EFCC going by their utterances in the media and unnecessary display of executive drama.”
Abdulrazak pointed out that the 1999 Constitution as Amended guarantees the innocence of an accused person until otherwise proven, but added that the EFCC, in the pursuit of its persecution of ex-Gov Bello, had thrown all caution to the wind and turned his botched arrest into a television and social media soap opera.
“This is being done to demonise him,” he said.
He continued, “We know that before an accused person is arraigned before a court for arraignment and trial, service of charges against him is usually the condition precedent, except where the accused person is on the run. Former Governor Yahaya Bello was not and has never been on the run. In fact, he has an active and running injunction from a court of competent jurisdiction that forbids EFCC from arresting him to which EFCC had appealed against in the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja until they recently withdrew it,” he said.
