Rights activist, Femi Falana, has asked the Nigeria Police to charge the protesters remanded in prison custody to court before August 25 or face legal action.The lawyer also accused the authorities of preventing legal representation for the protesters, leading to their being remanded in prison.Falana gave the ultimatum in a statement entitled ‘HALT THE CLAMPDOWN ON PROTESTERS’.He said, “Out of the 2,111 arrested suspects, 1,403 have been arraigned in various courts. Painfully, the suspects were ordered to be remanded in prison custody due to a lack of legal representation.“The suspects were denied legal representation even though the Nigerian Bar Association had publicly announced its intention to provide lawyers to defend them.“We have also confirmed that individual lawyers who had applied for the bail of the detained suspects in police stations were not informed that they were going to be arraigned in the courts.“We submit that the decision by the authorities to deny the suspects legal representation constitutes a violent breach of their fundamental right to fair hearing guaranteed by section 36 of the Constitution and article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.“This is highly discriminatory and illegal on the ground that politically exposed persons who are arrested for looting the treasury to the tune of several billions of Naira are usually informed in advance of the dates and of their arraignment in the courts. Such highly placed suspected looters are always granted bail in liberal terms and even authorised by trial judges to travel abroad for medical treatment.”
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