Hunger Protester Seeks Freedom in Court, Accuses Police of Illegal Detention
A hunger protester, Babatunde Akande, has taken the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking freedom from his prolonged detention without trial. According to Akande, he was arrested on September 1, 2024, while attending a church service during the #Endbadgovernance protests that took place between August 1 and 10.
Akande alleged that since his arrest, he has been denied access to his family and has been held in the detention facility of the Intelligence Response Team in Abuja without being arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction. His legal team, led by Deji Adeyanju, has filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit on his behalf against the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the State Security Service, and the Attorney General of the Federation.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1345/2024, Akande’s lawyers argue that his continued detention without trial is a serious breach of his fundamental human rights as guaranteed under Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The protesters are also seeking an order for the defendants to pay him N300m as general, exemplary and aggravated damages.
The matter has yet to be assigned to a judge since it was filed on September 11. Meanwhile, the police had earlier arraigned 10 activists in connection with the protest on September 2. The defendants were accused of various crimes, including treason, destabilizing the country, intimidating the President and destroying the National Communications Commission (NCC) in Kano.
In a related development, the Department of State Services (DSS) has disclosed plans to prosecute three protesters arrested in Kaduna. The DSS stated that the protesters had been arrested for their involvement in the #Endbadgovernance protests and would be prosecuted for alleged offenses committed during the protests.
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