The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has defended its decision to arraign minors in connection with the #EndBadGovernance protest, citing the age of criminal responsibility.
According to Muyiwa Adejobi, NPF spokesperson, individuals above seven years old can be charged in court.
The protest, held nationwide between August 1 and 10, turned violent in some areas, with hoodlums looting and vandalizing properties.
The police arrested alleged perpetrators, and on Friday, many of them, including children, were brought before a federal high court in Abuja.
Four of the alleged protesters collapsed during the proceedings and were rushed out.
The court granted N10 million bail to each of the 72 defendants and removed four sick children’s names from the charge.
The remaining defendants pleaded not guilty.
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While Nigerians, including leading politicians, condemned the arraignment of minors, Rimazonte Ezekiel, the Federal Government prosecutor, claimed that all the persons arraigned were adults, stating that “most of them are married men.”
Adejobi echoed this sentiment in an interview on Channels Television, saying the youngest among those arraigned is 13 years old.
“Those that are not criminally liable under the law, those are the young ones below the age of seven.
“Once you are more than seven, you can be charged to court… But none of them is less than seven. I think the youngest should be 13,” Adejobi said.
The spokesperson emphasized that the persons arraigned allegedly hijacked the protests, committing punishable offenses such as flying foreign flags.
“They are people who were flying Russian flags and many foreign flags, which of course is a punishable offence. So they are criminally liable. We have not charged any underage in our own context here to court,” he said.
