An attorney general and minister of justice in Nigeria, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, recently supported the controversial decision to charge several minors with treason for their roles in the #EndBadGovernance protests that happened across the country earlier this year. Fagbemi made it clear that prosecuting children is not against the law in Nigeria. This comes after a lot of people were worried about how the government was treating young protesters.
In his speech at the opening of a new office building by the Law Corridor law firm, Fagbemi said that even though some legal experts and commentators have said that minors should be tried in a family court, Nigerian law does not stop minors from being charged with serious crimes. He said that the Federal High Court has the power to hear cases involving treason and similar charges, so that was the right place for these incidents to happen. This being said, Fagbemi said that President Bola Tinubu’s choice to drop the charges against the minors was made out of compassion.
Fagbemi said that President Tinubu’s choice to stop prosecuting the minors was based on a deep desire to help them. It was made clear that the President, as a father and a grandfather, chose to free the young people even though the evidence presented by the security agencies pointed to serious charges. As Fagbemi pointed out, the President showed empathy by understanding the teens’ difficult situation. He also said that the President’s decision was based on a desire to show mercy to teens who were caught up in a national problem.
This change of events comes after the Federal High Court in Abuja threw out two different treason charges against 119 people who were arrested during the protests earlier this week. The Attorney-General asked for the charges to be dropped, and the President ordered that they be dropped. The Nigeria Police Force brought two charges. In one case, 32 children were named as defendants, and in the other, 5 minors were named as defendants. Reports say that these 14–17-year-olds were upset during the hearings, and some of them passed out before the charges were even read. The public’s anger over how children are treated in such important court cases grew because of this event.
Some people saw what the President did as a show of kindness and compassion, but the choice to prosecute minors has caused a larger discussion about how the legal system deals with young people who are involved in protests. Serious crimes like treason are sometimes brought against minors, especially when they are protesting against government actions or policies. This worries some law experts and human rights groups. There is also the question of whether these kinds of cases should be treated with more care, taking into account how vulnerable the youth are and how criminal charges might affect their future in the long run.
Fagbemi also used his speech at the Law Corridor event to push people in Nigeria’s legal field to work together. He made it clear that more experienced lawyers should work closely with younger lawyers to make sure that the next generation of lawyers is better prepared to deal with the problems that the field faces. Fagbemi stressed that this kind of mentoring and partnership would be good for the law community because it would encourage new ideas, toughness, and better client service. The legal field would be better able to adapt to the changing needs of the Nigerian legal system if it combined the experience and knowledge of older lawyers with the new ideas and flexibility of younger lawyers.
The Law Corridor is run by Pelumi Olajengbesi as Managing Partner, Henry Kelechukwu Eni-Otu as Lead Partner, and Ganiyu Ajibola Bello as Deputy Managing Partner. Their goal is to improve the practice of law in Nigeria through new ideas and teamwork. Fagbemi’s comments about how important partnerships are in the field fit with the firm’s goals, which are to build a long-lasting legal system that can handle the challenges of modern law practice. Many important people, like Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, attended the launching event, which shows how important it was.
Even though the charges were dropped, people are still talking about what it means to prosecute children for protesting. The government has explained its actions by pointing to technicalities in the law and President Tinubu’s compassionate action. However, many people are still asking why young people are being treated as criminal suspects, especially in cases that are politically charged. A lot of important questions have been asked about the rights of minors, whether civil disobedience should be punished with a crime, and the role of the courts in finding a balance between justice and compassion. As the country deals with these problems, the choice of whether to prosecute and then free the children is still being discussed by lawyers, human rights activists, and the general Nigerian public.
ALSO READ:
“You’re Mad Because…” Elon Musk’s Daughter Calls Her Father A “Grumpy, Little, Control Freak.”
