By Ayodele Oni
An Akure, Ondo State based Lawyer and Human Rights Activist,Tope Temokun, has backed remark by Kaduna Senator, Shehu Sani that there are still endSARs detainees in the custody of the Nigeria Police.
Temokun, in a statement in Akure on Monday, pointed out that the police lacked authoritative data on endSARs detainees.
The Police spokesman, Olumuyuwa Adejobi in a press statement, on Sunday, said “the Nigeria Police affirms that no individual is being unlawfully detained by the Nigeria Police Force or any other security agency in Nigeria due to the EndSARS protest.
“All arrested individuals have been processed according to the law, and none remain unlawfully detained.”
But the Akure Activist stated that “The reaction by the police that all individuals arrested have been processed according to law and none remains in custody, citing the facts that Governor Sanwo-Olu pardoned about 100 suspects in Lagos suffers from fallacy of hasty generalization.
“ENDSARS protesters were arrested across the states of the country and apart from Lagos, which other state officially pardoned those arrested in connection with the October 2020 ENDSARS protest?
“What is the percentage of those arrested in Lagos and outside Lagos that had legal representations and how many of those legal representations, billed or pro bono, followed those cases to logical conclusions?
“I expect the government to come up with data and statistics on these. That is when the Police could now officially make a conclusive statement on the matter.
“Many ENDSARS protesters who had no legal representation after their arrest and since their arrest would have been forgotten in various remand centres across the country.”
He cited a case of one of the female detainees in Akure that had to give birth in police custody before a legal representation was arranged for her.
“She was taken to the State CID, Ondo State Police Command Headquarters at Alagbaka-Igbatoro, Akure and detained there briefly before being taken before the Magistrate Court Akure, to be remanded at the Surulere prison, Ondo since the 24th day of November, 2020.
“She was in prison till the 16th day of June, 2021 when she delivered a baby boy in prison which threw her case up for global attention to her ordeal.
“I represented Kemisola in court. On the 22nd of June 2021 she was granted bail by the High Court of Ondo State sitting in Akure after nine months of her arrest and remand since October 22, 2020 and after seven days she gave birth in prison.
“How many people knew that the case against the ENDSARS detainee, Kemisola, was not dropped and was prosecuted in court by the Ondo State Government ever since till the 25th day of July, 2023, that the government withdrew the charge against the young girl.
“Police lack the genuine record and data, as a primary source of information, to hastily respond to Shehu Sanni’s patriotic call, with denial and with such vague phrase that they have been processed according to law.”
