Though a bailable offence, lawyers and spectators watched and listened in shock as a junior judge, a Chief Magistrate, sitting in Lafia on Monday, in his ruling, declined to grant bail to 38 women charged to court over protests following the Supreme Court judgement on Nasarawa guber polls that affirmed the victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule.
The decision is further raising the temperament of a distraught people who say the feel cheated by the Supreme Court judgment handled by five men and a woman of the same faith as Sule. They pointed out that two of the men who decided his faith come from his original home State of Yobe State.
One angry man blurted out to anyone who cared to listen: “Now that they have decided to toy with fragile peace here, we will see where it will end. All that show of force last week with the endorsement and backing of the Nigerian Army and Police by the Nomad Vigilante Group, their militia men deliberately endorsed by those who wanted power at all cost, will blow in all our faces. Watch and see! They lighted the fire, they will have to quench it,”
He bounded off, refusing to grant any interview, insisting that the decision to keep unarmed women who were protesting in prison for a few more days “is a bad recipe for the soup being cooked in Nasarawa,” adding quietly, “everybody knows how to set up militia groups”. He declined to give his name.
Others in the court, without evidence, blamed the an executive member of the State for the persecution of the women.
Fuming and red-eyed, they glared at journalists who wanted interviews. One shouted: ” Go to the Government House, Lafia to talk to that occupant. He knows what he is doing!”
But one who identified himself, the Coordinator of a civil society group, Mr. Kefas Tiga, described as disheartening and reckless a situation whereby some breastfeeding mothers with their babies and other sick women among there were not granted bail despite an application by the learned counsel.
He called on civil society organisations to wake up to their responsibilities by questioning some disturbing happenings in the country that negate the fundamental human rights of some individuals in the society.
He added, “These people who were arrested are not all part of the protests that started from 19 March, 2023 and these protests have been peaceful”.
The court fixed Thursday 25th January for hearing on the bail application for the 38 women who were accused by the Police of allegedly causing public disturbance and mischief by fire.
The Chief Magistrate Court judge, Mohammed Abdullahi Lanze, took the decision after listening to arguments of counsels to the complainant and the defendants on the bail application.
The bail application that was filed on Friday last week by counsel to the defendants Ayiwulu Baba Ayiwulu was not granted by the Chief Magistrate.
At the resumption of hearing on the bail application, counsel to the defendants, Ayiwulu Baba Ayiwulu, relied on points of law to support his plea for the court to temper justice with mercy by granting the defendants bail.
Counsel to the Commissioner of Police, Danjuma Allu, on his part argued that the complainant had seven days to reply to the bail application and urged the court to grant him a short date to reply in accordance with the provision of the law.
After listening to counsels, the court adjourned sitting to Thursday for hearing of the application for the bail of the 38 persons.
Last Friday, 38 suspected protesters were arraigned before the Chief Magistrate Court 3 and later remanded at the Lafia Custodial Center of the Nigeria Correctional Service for allegedly causing public disturbance, criminal conspiracy, mischief by fire and unlawful assembly.
The 38 women were arrested for peacefully protesting for upturning the victory of David Ombugadu at the Nasarawa Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal.
