Court throws out application to bar Nigerians from further protests against hunger

•IGP: Suspected sponsors of rioters flew out on protest eve
•HURIWA wants security agencies probed over alleged killings of protesters
•Police claim no casualties recorded during protests in Kano

Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has thrown out an application seeking an interim injunction to bar Nigerians from protesting against hunger and bad governance.

The motion ex parte was marked FHC/ABS/CS/1149/2024.

Danladi Goje, Buky Abayomi, Adiza Abbo, and 13 other Nigerians filed the motion ex parte, dated August 12, 2024, through their lawyer, Tsembelee Sorkaa.

Messrs Danladi Goje, Buky Abayomi, Adiza Abbo, and 13 other Nigerians had, on August 12, 2024, filed the motion seeking the enforcement of their fundamental rights against the organisations involved with the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests.

The applicants had filed the motion against organisations such as Take It Back Movement, Concerned Nigerians, Nigerians Against Hunger, Initiative For Change, Human Rights Co-advocacy Initiative, Nigerians Against Corruption Initiative, Citizens For Change Advocacy Initiative, and Timely Intervention as the first to eighth respondents.

Others sued were Active Citizens Group, Students For Change, We Coalition, Total Intervention, Refurbished Nigeria, Tomorrow Today, Our Future In Our Hands Initiative, Youths Against Tyranny, Save Nigeria Movement, Omoyele Sowore, and Social Democratic Party (SDP) as the ninth to 19th respondents.

The rest are the Attorney General of the Federation and security agencies.

The applicants’ lawyer, Sorkaa, stated in his process that the right to life, personal liberty, private and family life, movement, property, and economic development of his clients were likely to be breached by the protest organised by the 1st to 19th respondents, who use the hashtag #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria.

The applicants sued 19 civil society groups, including the Take It Back Movement and Nigeria’s Action Against Hunger.

The Attorney General of the Federation and the security agencies joined as parties.

The applicants sought the enforcement of their fundamental rights against the organisations involved with the protests.

In his motion on notice, where he sought an injunction against the respondents, the lawyer argued that “the previous protests in Nigeria in 2020, hashtag #EndSARS, led to the deaths of innocent Nigerians and massive lootings and destructions of properties; this was widely reported in the media.”

Justice Lifu said that the protest in question ended last week, and the lawyer did not present evidence before the court that the protesters would reconvene later.

“I have carefully considered the prayers in the instant motion (ex parte). In my view, the motion is not grantable. The prayers for substituted service are not grantable. The entire application lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed,” the judge ruled.

The court subsequently adjourned the hearing on the motion on notice to August 29, 2024.

This came as the Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun disclosed that some sponsors of rioters who hijacked the planned peaceful protest against bad governance and hunger flew out of the country on the eve of the event before the police could apprehend them.

“Before the protest, we had intelligence that some agents of destabilisation were bent on using the protest to destabilise the country. Some of them were already out of the country. Some of them moved out that very day the protest kicked off,” he said.

On the outcry by the Nigeria Labour Congress on the raid of Labour House by police detectives, Egbetokun said: “There was no need for the noise about the alleged raid on Labour House because we did not raid Labour House. They tracked a prime suspect we were looking for. We recovered sensitive documents that gave out the involvement of our suspect. He was using the shop or place of business as a front.”

Egbetokun, speaking at the Nigerian Police Youth Summit held at the Police Resource Centre, Abuja, insisted that police were against the protest from the onset because “when you tag the protest ‘10 days of rage’, you know it is not going to be peaceful. You all saw it for yourself.”

He said: “If the protest organisers were sincere, following our warnings about a hijack, they would have followed the guidelines or gone ahead to meet with the Commissioners of Police of their states. It was for your safety.”

MEANWHILE, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) urged President Bola Tinubu to set up an independent body of investigators to probe the alleged killing of 22 people during the recent #EndBadGovernance protests.

It urged the president to ensure that the panel is headed by a respected serving justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and five others drawn from a broad spectrum of credible private and public institutions.

The association also asked that the security operatives who shot at protesters be identified, prosecuted for mass murder, and punished in line with the rule of law.

The national coordinator of the rights group, Emmanuel Onwubiko, disclosed this in a statement yesterday.

The association warned that sweeping the killings under the carpet will not augur well for the country, stressing that the impunity could instigate another #EndSARS demonstration.

The rights body also urged governors in states where suspected killings of protesters took place, such as Kano, Niger, Yobe and Kaduna, to set up judicial panels to probe the deaths.

It lamented that the otherwise peaceful protests turned violent in some parts of the north, claiming 16 lives in a suicide bombing in Borno and six in Niger, and were characterised by looting and confrontation with security operatives.

“We condemn the brazen act of extra-legal execution of a 16-year-old protester in Zaria, Kaduna State, by the Army. An independent probe of the execution of this teenage protester must be conducted because the Nigerian Army can’t be trusted to conduct the investigation, given that the Army and the father of the boy have contradictory versions of what happened,” the rights group added.

Also, the Commissioner of Police in Kano, Salman-Dogo Garba, yesterday said there was no single death recorded in the state during the #EndBadGovernance protest.

During a press conference, he said: “Going by the records, so far, we are unaware of any casualties recorded.”

Recall that over five persons were killed during the protests, which were hijacked by hoodlums in some instances.

Families of the deceased are still mourning their loved ones who were said to have been felled by bullets.

Garba added: “The aftermath of these events resulted in the arrest of 873 suspects and the recovery of many exhibits. The command arrested and prosecuted 600 suspects for various offences, including criminal conspiracy, inciting disturbance, riot, theft, mischief, and arson.