Court grants bail of N10m each to 72 protesters for treason

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday granted bail to 72 of the 76 #EndBadGovernance protesters brought before it on charges bordering on treasonable felony, rioting, destruction of public property, assaulting security officials, and looting among others.

The 76 defendants are made up of 28 Minors and 44 others protesters arrested from several locations Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Plateau, Katsina States, and the FCT.

Justice Obiora Egwuata, however, remanded the adults at the Kuje Correctional Center Abuja while the minors are to be remanded at the Bostal Children’s Home pending the perfection of their bail conditions.

Justice Obiora granted them bail in the sum of N10million with two surety each in like sum.

For the adults, the Judge said the surety should be a civil servant and must provide a valid Identity Card, residential address, and passport-sized photographs, among others.

The minors could either provide a parent or sibling as surety, with similar particulars.

The 10-count charges border on Treasonable felony, Rioting, destruction of public property, assaulting security officials, and looting/theft of public property, among others.

All the defendants, made up of 28 Minors and 44 others, pleaded not guilty to the charges read to them as four Minors were excluded from the exercise due to ill health.

Earlier, there was drama at the Court as four of the minors looking very malnourished fainted as they approached the dock for arraignment with their lawyers rushing to provide aid.

The prosecuting counsel applied to the court for four suspects who earlier fainted to get the first aid and be arraigned later.

Justice Egwuatu on seeing the situation called a brief recess to enable the protesters who were sick to be attended to.

Upon resumption, the court however granted the prayers for four suspects to be excepted from the arraignment for a later date.