#EndBadGovernance Protest: Kano secures freedom, rehabilitates 76 teenagers

The arrest of 76 Kano teenagers accused of treason felony in the wake of the End bad governance protests raised dust nationwide as the concern eventually yielded quick attention from the Federal Government.

Aside the gravity of the charges, which elicited worries from citizens, especially the most of the minors could hardly understand the cause of their offense, the circumstances surrounding their incarceration left much to be desired.

The first appearance of these teenagers at the Federal High Court, Abuja clearly show the level of the excruciating pain they had gone through in the hands of the police.

For more than 90 days, the innocent children came out of detention unpleasantly emaciated, distressed and malnourished. The appearance of the children showed they needed urgent medical attention.

The collapse of some of the teenagers showed what they went through. Nigerians would however remain grateful to President Bola Tinubu who earlier granted the 76 children pardon and excused them of the charge.

Prior to the presidency’s intervention, Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf had constituted a powerful legal team led by human rights lawyer and Senior advocate, Femi Falana to challenge the charges against teenagers.

In this edition, attempt would be made to showcase the ingenuity of Yusuf that eventually paved way for the freedom of the 76 children, how they were conveyed back to Kano, placed on medical and social rehabilitation and subsequently reunited them with their parents.

The atmosphere at the Muhammadu Buhari Specialists Hospital, Giginyu, last Thursday during the official hand over of the 76 teenagers to their parents came alive with mixed feelings of emotion after two weeks of reformation.

Although, the parents of these teenagers were overwhelmed with gratitude to the Kano State government for bringing back their wards alive, there were emotional moments, especially with some parents who underwent difficult times during the detention of their children for offense they never committed in the first place.

In August, some enemies of peace and progress had sponsored unscrupulous elements to obstruct peaceful and genuine demonstrations against the economic hardship in the country.

This development saw the destruction of public and private properties worth billions of naira in Kano State while several innocent residents were also attacked with dangerous weapons.

As a result, quite a number of people including the 76 teenagers were arrested on the streets of Kano for the heinous act.

The suspected sponsored hoodlums even unleashed terror on the ICT center built by the Federal Government to empower the youths and the state high court where vital documents were destroyed including case files of a high profile matter in Kano. What could have warranted an attack on a court if not for an ulterior motive?

A good number of the detained children during various interviews with journalists claimed to have been picked while on private errands for their parents and others said they were not aware of the #EndBadGovernance protests only to be roped among those charged for felony.

While the state government regretted and strongly condemned the act of economic sabotage, it is worrisome that the security agencies would move a large number of teenagers from Kano to Abuja without the knowledge of the chief security officer of the state and simply admitted same to such grevious charge.

Yet, Governor Yusuf took bold steps to assemble a strong legal team to secure the unconditional release of the Kano citizens from police custody, amid laud public outcry that greeted the charges against the children.

Incidentally, the court dismissed and discharged the 76 Kano teenagers for lacking in merit after strong opposition by the respondents lawyers.

Although, the president’s intervention came handy, the Kano state legal team was well positioned to pursue the case to a logical conclusion.

Subsequent upon their release, the Kano State Government took full responsibility of the welfare of the 76 teenagers, conveyed them in a chartered flight back to Kano and saw to their medical and psychological needs for two weeks before their release.

Besides, Governor Yusuf offered automatic employment to two of the teenagers, one NCE graduate and one final year undergraduate of a university.

Similarly, the Government directed the immediate reinstatement of others back to school with commitment to oversee their educational pursuit.

The tenagers were also offered N50,000 naira each courtesy of the Bafarawa foundation and support from UNICEF.

It is pertinent to state that the state government was not unaware of the calculated attempt by the enemies of the administration to shift blame of the pains undergone by the teenagers on its door step.

We are not unaware distractors had deliberately chosen to also misconstrue the agitation of Nigerians that led to the nationwide hunger and frustration protest.

But the enemies had intentionally planned to read negative interpretation to Yusuf’s decision to receive the aggrieved youths.

However, the administration of Governor Yusuf would not be distracted but remains focused on addressing the yearnings and aspirations of Kanawas.

The earlier the opposition realized the fact that it is no longer profitable to play politics with the lives of innocent people, the sooner they would realize their failure.

Sanusi Ahmad Bature Dawakin-Tofa
Director General, Media and Publicity,
Kano State Government.