FG lawyer refute claims that arraigned protesters are minors, insists they are all married adults

Rimazonte Ezekiel, counsel for the Nigerian government, stated that the EndBadGovernance protesters arraigned on Friday, November 1, at the Federal High Court were all adults.

His remarks followed widespread concern over the treatment of protesters, many of whom were reported to be minors.

It was stated that one of the minors allegedly fainted before the trial began.

However, in a video, Ezekiel asserted that the majority of the accused were married men and that none were minors.

The lawyer noted that these individuals were arrested in Kaduna and Zaria.

“These boys that we brought to the court today, all of them are adults. Most of them are married men; none of them is a minor,” Ezekiel said.

“Some of them are university graduates. The small kids that you are seeing here, they came with their parents to greet their loved ones. They are not even the real suspects standing trial in this case. These boys were arrested in Kaduna and Zaria.

“Imagine the level we are at now. Do you know what it cost us to be at the level of this democracy? These young boys are trying to destabilize Nigeria using the Russian flag and other countries; calling on the military to remove our President. Is it fair? Even to remove the State governors, that they don’t want democracy again,” he added.

“If you don’t like democracy, are we forcing you? You go back home and sit. Everybody is enjoying their fundamental rights, nobody is abusing their rights. Everybody is enjoying free movement and everything is moving fine in the country.

“These boys for no reason started protests with foreign flags, Russian flag. Is that what we want in this country?

“Don’t mind the defence council, they will always find something to say to tarnish the image of Nigerian police; it’s not true.

“In my own case, we filed charges against 43 defendants. They were all produced in the court today. All of them are fully adults,” he said.