Four out of the suspects brought before a Federal High Court in Abuja for arraignment collapsed on Friday, few minutes after the commencement of proceedings.
The defendants, a mixture of teens and adults, were brought before Justice Obiora Egwuatu for arraignment on treason charge filed against them by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
The 72 supects were alleged to have participated in the last #EndBadGovernance protest in Kano State, during which they allegedly chanted anti-government slogans, called for unlawful change of government through military intervention and carried foreign flags.
According to one of the defence lawyers, Marshall Abubakar, the defendants were charged in two batches of 76 and 43.
Shortly after the first batch was called, the defendants were mounting the dock when some of them suddenly fell down, causing confusion in court, a development that prompted the judge to suspend proceedings.
Health officials from the court’s clinic were later invited to attended to those who collapsed.
Abubakar blamed the development on hunger and ill-health on the part of the defendants.
He said: “All these young children are sick and hungry. They have been kept in police custody for weeks without food and proper medical care. They are sick and need proper attention. That is the cause of these unfortunate developments.”
After the defendants were attended to and they regained strength, proceedings resumed, following which the prosecuting lawyer, Audi Garba applied that the names of the four that suffered ill-health, should be excluded from the charge.
The defence lawyers, including Abubakar, did not object, following which Justice Egwuatu struck out their names from the first charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/503/2024, containing names of 76 defendants.
The remaining 72 defendants pleased not guilty when the 10 counts in the charge was read to them.
Abubakar moved the defendants’ bail application, against which the prosecution did not file a counter affidavit.
In his ruling, Justice Egwuatu noted that the prosecution did not counter the defendants’ assurances that they would be available for trial and would not tamper with witnesses nor jump bail if granted.
The judge also noted that some of the defendant were young children below the age of 18 years.
Justice Egwuatu then granted bail to each of the defendants at N10million with two sureties, one of which must be a federal civil servant from level 15, while the second should be either of each defendants’ parents or a sibling.
The judge later adjourned the matter till January 24, 2025 for the commencement of trial.
