Court Acquits ‘Buhari Must Go’ Protesters In Kogi State
A magistrate court in Lokoja, Kogi State has struck out criminal charges against two protesters accused of defacing government buildings with posters of #BuhariMustGo in 2021.
Tope Temokun, the lawyer of the arrested protesters disclosed his clients’ victory at the court via his Facebook page on Thursday.
It was earlier reported how the two men, Emmanuel Larry and Victor Udoka, were arrested and kept in a correctional facility in Kabba, Kogi State, after they participated in a #BuhariMustGo protest staged against the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in Lokoja, the state capital, in April last year.
A viral video captured the moment when the duo was accosted and physically assaulted by a group of youth in a community in Lokoja for carrying placards with the inscription, ‘Buhari Must Go’, and scrawling the same message on a roadside structure.
Following the incidence Larry and Udoka were handed over to the police, and was “secretly” arraigned and obtained an order for their remand in prison, according to Benjamin Omeiza, one of their lawyers who disclosed it to a source last year.
The state Commissioner of Police, Ayuba Edeh, later confirmed that the two persons were arrested on April 5, 2021, for allegedly embarking on a smear campaign against the President, Mr Buhari, in Lokoja, the state capital.
The men spent well over two months in detention before being released on bail last year.
However, announcing the two men’s acquittal on Thursday, Mr Temokun said, “Today, 14th July 2022, the Court struck out this inglorious charge, discharging these youth activists.”
The lawyer, who blamed the activists’ travails on Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, and his deputy, Edward Onoja, said the two men “were tortured by political thugs” and “were remanded in Kabba prison for 78 days, to waste away.”
He said the Kogi State government “embarked, albeit vaingloriously, on heavily investing Kogi citizens’ scanty resources on prosecuting them in court, through Kogi State ministry of justice.”
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Congratulating his team of lawyers on the success of the case, Temokun said,
“As part of chambers’ humanitarian outreach, we took up the case pro bono in 2021. We have been in court since then and Benjamin Obilor the counsel representing our office, whom I specially thank and appreciate for his doggedness, had given a good fight through these months of the desperate moves of the Kogi State government to send these youth patriots back to jail.”
He also lauded SaharaReporters publisher and activist, Omoyele Sowore, for his roles in the case.
Mr Temokun praised Mr Sowore, who is the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the forthcoming 2023 general elections for “standing up for the weak and vulnerable youths across tribes of this country.”
Reacting to the court judgement, Mr Sowore, in a post via his Facebook page on Thursday, similarly blamed Governor Bello of Kogi State for the activists’ ordeals.
“These activists were detained for months unending until judicial officers and Nigeria Police Force officers as well as the governor and his deputy involved in their detention were all exposed. Today is another powerful testimony to that time-tested aphorism that “power doesn’t have a reverse gear until it meets superior power,” he stated.