EndbBadGovernance: Detention of minors: AGF where is your nolle prosequi?

By Atekojo Samson Usman

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi’s claims following the arraignment of minors who protested #EndBadGovernance in July, 2024, constitutes abuse of office.

This is particularly so, given that the kids have been in detention for the past three months and the AGF cannot feign ignorance. The precarious situation they found themselves fall within the powers of the Attorney General to intervene, particularly the “Nolle Prosequi” in Section 174(1) which states in verbatim ad litera term: “The Attorney General of the Federation shall have power (a) to institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person before any Court of law in Nigeria, other than a Court martial, in respect of any offence created by or under any Act of the National Assembly.

(b) To take over any criminal proceeding and discontinue it.

As the Chief Law Officer, he has the discretion to charge some offenders and decline to charge .others, if particularly Section 174 is read in ‘pari material’ with Section 211 of 1999 as amended.

For the AGF to have woken up after reactions continue to trail the arraignment of minors at the Justice Obiora Eguwatu-led Federal High Court, Abuja on Friday amount to gross neglect of the powers of his office. The development is injurious on the integrity of the nation, seeing these kids in lamentable situation in the open Court.

More worrisome is that these minors look malnourished, hungry and in paranoia of their lives. What a delusional system Nigeria runs!

From the inherent powers of the AGF, the exemption to the proviso is the “Martial Court”, and this is because it is a Special Court with coordinate jurisdiction with the regular High Courts in the land, hence, it amounts to legal absurdity for the AGF to interfere in martial court cases.

Gleaning through the statement issued by the Office of the AGF which was signed by the Minister himself, one would realise that the bar of hypocrisy has been raised particularly where he said in quote, “It has just come to my notice that the police have arraigned those arrested in connection with the endbad governance violent protest in court for various offences including treason.

“It is not within my power to vary the order of the court remanding the defendants in detention centres and adjourning the case to January.”

The word ‘treason’ which the AGF imported into reason among other criminal offences was to justify the unjustified persecution of those minors and for the simple fact that they protested as of their rights being bona fide citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Treason from its etymological meaning which is the “act of handing over a state”, to the present day meaning as “the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or government”, was never contemplated by the protesters.

Curiously, those kids’ protest cannot be said to have constituted treason. They protested with placards and there is nowhere in the world that carrying placards means overthrowing a sovereign nation.

Section 37 of the Criminal Code Act which succinctly capture ‘Treason’ says: “Any person who levies war against the State, in order to intimidate or overawe the President or the Governor of a State, is guilty of treason and is liable to the punishment of death.” This implies that there must have been war and Nigeria has 36 states and FCT. How many States out of the number were in war? Was Nigeria imploded in war which was caused by the defendants? The answer is no.

This is the persecution of the helpless and because they all come from poor family background, they are being persecuted with dual application and interpretation of law.

EndBadGovernance minors protesters in a Federal High Court, Abuja

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria should remember that the delay in prosecuting them after 48 hours as enshrined in the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015 raises breach of their fundamental human rights.

Those are school age children and having been in detention centres for the past three months has obviously affected their education. Those we call future leaders are being deliberately persecuted without considering the consequential loss to the nation.

It is sacrilegious for the AGF who ought to know to pretend and look the other way. The AGF took an oath of office to uphold justice, and ensure that justice is carried to the latter in criminal and civil cases.

Could the AGF have been influenced by the powers-that-be, or politicians and serving interests rather than been influenced by the powers of his office? In this circumstance, therefore, a sane system requires that Lateef Fagbemi should resign from office.

Atekojo Samson Usman is a journalist who has interest in legal issues and good governance, writes from Abuja