The ACF said the prosecution of the minors portrayed President Bola Tinubu’s administration in “a very bad light, domestically and internationally”.
Some of the protesters, mostly minors, were arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, November 1, 2024.
The suspects arrested during the protest held between August 1 and 10 were granted a N10 million bail each by the court, a condition the protesters have yet to meet.
However, the ACF, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. T. A. Muhammad-Baba, on Sunday, November 3, said the federal government should “immediately” halt the detention and trial of the suspects.
The Forum said the arraignment of the minors on allegations of treason and other offences was “a show of shame and it is as crass, gross, and disturbing as can be”.
It stated: “It is also a demonstration of needless official high-handedness at its worst. Equally unsettling was the dramatic departure from the court of the presiding judge on sighting some of the under-aged detainees collapsing from hunger and suffering.
“ACF views these citizens as victims of the Nigerian criminal justice administration system and mindless bureaucracy. The very unhelping and insensitive words, to the press, of the prosecuting attorney and those of the Inspector-General of the Police were just as distressing, amounting to an attempt to rationalize (‘justify’ is a very wrong term to apply) the mis-action, adding to the absurdity of the sham trial.
“A telling symptom of a justice system gone wild is that the suspects were offered bail for the sum of N10 million each plus some other stringent conditions. From their looks, most of the detainees cannot raise as little as N10,000 to post bail.
“Subsequent statements by senior government officials to the effect that the welfare of the detainees will henceforth be take care of does not inspire confidence. Similarly, the hint that the detainees may be tried in juvenile courts also begs the question: these hapless citizens should not be detained or tried at all, especially as the instigators of the protests have been freely roaming the streets.
“ACF is disappointed in the apparent resort to abandoning court by the trial judge as well as the unreasonable bail conditions he granted the detainees. It was not just the impossible monetary condition but to ask the detainees to provide sureties who must be senior government officials is beyond belief, these being citizens from the lower rungs of society who may never have been to Abuja!
“Shorn of all niceties or political correctness, the trial simply assaults common sense and it is, in this regard as scandalous and reckless as can be.”
The Forum added: “The saga also portrays the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) Administration in very bad light, domestically and internationally and obvious in reportage of the matter in major international news channels.
“The ACF had warned Northern youths, ahead of the protests, to be wary of being manipulated into a collective action of dubious utility. Still, absolutely nothing in the so-called trial for treason justifies FGN’s treatment of the detained citizens.
“In particular, ACF demands that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) should:
“Immediately halt the detention and trial of these citizens; release the ‘suspects’ and return them to their families unharmed;
“Investigate the circumstances that led to the detention of the so-called suspects for over three months, way beyond the constitutional limits of 24 hours;
“Extend financial compensation to the detainees for their unnecessary and unjustified detention for over three months;
“Arrange medical examination, treatment and provide professional psychological evaluation and counselling to the detainees; and
“Re-evaluate its strategies for processing protests strictly in line with constitutional due processes, principles of good governance, and international best practices.”
