Nigeria releases underage protesters accused of treason
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has ordered law enforcement to release dozens of minors detained for participating in recent protests against the country’s rising cost-of-living crisis and drop treason charges against them.
Information Minister Mohammed Idris announced the decision on Monday, days after footage of some of the children collapsing in court sparked widespread outrage in the West African nation.
“The president has also directed the immediate setting up of an administrative committee... to examine all issues surrounding the arrest, detention, and treatment of these minors,” Idris wrote on X.
According to local media, the 30 children aged between 14 and 17 were among at least 76 people arraigned on Friday on ten charges, including treason, destruction of property, public disturbance, and inciting a military coup.
They have been detained since August following violent nationwide protests sparked by Nigeria’s economic woes and alleged bad governance. Four of them collapsed due to exhaustion when they appeared in the courtroom last week, and the majority of the others appeared malnourished, the Associated Press reported. They were reportedly granted bail, and their trial had been scheduled to begin in January.
At least 22 people were killed in clashes with police in rallies that swept through Africa’s most populous state, according to Amnesty International. However, the Nigeria Police Force has disputed this figure, claiming that seven people died in a series of incidents that did not involve excessive use of force by security officers. Nearly 700 people were arrested, authorities reported.
On Monday, Mohammed Idris said President Tinubu had directed investigations into “all law enforcement agents involved in the arrest of these minors and in the associated legal processes.”
“Any officials of government found to have committed any infractions in this regard will be subjected to decisive and thorough disciplinary action,” he added.
Welcoming Tinubu’s decision, Amnesty International said the young people had been held for months in a “notorious police facility” in the capital, Abuja, under deplorable conditions, including food deprivation.
“The ill-treatments the minors were subjected to – solely for exercising the right to peaceful protest – exposes a deliberate strategy to crush the vibrant spirit of the country’s youth and stop them from demanding accountability, freedom and human rights,” the organization stated on Monday.
