Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced that President Bola Tinubu has ordered the release of the underage children arraigned before an Abuja Federal High Court on Friday, November 1 for participating in the #EndBadGovernance Protest.
The announcement was made to State House correspondents during an emergency briefing at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
The minister said, “The President has ordered the immediate release of all the minors who have been arrested by the Nigeria Police without prejudice to whatever legal processes they are undergoing. He has directed that they be released immediately.
“Secondly, the President has also directed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction to immediately attend to the welfare of these minors, and to ensure their smooth reunion with their parents or guardians wherever they are in the country.
“Thirdly, the President has directed that an administrative committee will be set up immediately, to be headed by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, to examine all issues surrounding the arrest, detention, treatment, and finally, the release of these young minors.
“Fourthly, the President has also directed that all law enforcement agents involved in the arrest and the legal processes will be investigated, and if any infractions are found to have been committed by any official of Government, whether from a law enforcement agency or another appropriate authority, disciplinary action will be taken against him or her.”
There had been national and global outrage and condemnation on the arrest and arraignment of these minors in court who looked malnourished and sickly.
KatsinaMirror earlier reported and requested an investigation into the condition of the malnourished minors brought to court to ascertain why minors should be presented in court, unkempt, malnourished and in such a very bad state that made some of them to be collapsing in court and in front of the cameras.
Worse still, the malnourished children about 24 in number out of which 20 of them have been hospitalised at an undisclosed hospital suffered in custody for more than three months yet they were granted bail on stringent terms by the court with an ex-parte application for the police to keep them in custody for another 60 days to conclude their ‘investigation’ because they were accused of attempting to overthrow President Tinubu and displaying Russian flags.
KatsinaMirror learned that 13 of them were brought to court from IRT cells while others were brought from cells scattered around other Abuja divisions.
However, different individuals and organisations had called for the immediate and unconditional release of these minors who were arrested during the #EndBadGovernance demonstrations in August and now the president has given the order without prejudice to whatever legal processes they are undergoing.