Twenty-nine Nigerian children who participated in a protest against the country’s record cost-of-living crisis could be facing the death penalty in Nigeria.
Four of them collapsed in court during their arraignment on Friday due to exhaustion before they could enter a plea.
According to the charge sheet seen by The Associated Press, a total of 76 protesters were charged with 10 felony counts, including treason, destruction of property, public disturbance and mutiny, including minors ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old.
Several mass protests have been held in recent months to drive frustration over the cost-of-living crisis. At least 20 people who were demanding better opportunities and jobs for young people were shot dead and hundreds more were arrested at a protest in August.
The death sentence was introduced in the 1970s in Nigeria, but there have been no executions in the country since 2016.
Akintayo Balogun, a private lawyer based in Abuja, challenging the arraignment of the minors said, “Taking minors before a federal high court is wrong, ab initio, except if the government is able to prove that the boys are all above 19 years,” and added that the Child Rights Act does not allow any child to be subject to criminal proceedings and sentenced to death.
Each of the defendants was eventually granted 10 million naira ($5,900) bail by the court, with stringent conditions they are yet to meet imposed on them.
Reacting to the bail condition, counsel to some of the boys, Marshal Abubakar said, “A country that has a duty to educate its children will decide to punish those children. These children have been in detention for 90 days without food.”
Yemi Adamolekun, executive director of Enough is Enough, a civil society organization promoting good governance in Nigeria, said authorities have no business prosecuting children.
“The chief justice of Nigeria should be ashamed, she is a woman and a mother,” Adamolekun said.
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