The Federal government (FG) on Friday, re-arraigned 10 persons arrested during the #EndBadGovernancelnNigeria protests in Kano and Abuja.
The re-arraignment followed an amended charge filed by the FG to include one more protester, bringing the total number of arraigned persons to 11.
It would be recalled that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court had on September 11 granted N10m bail to each of the protesters arrested for participating in the August 1 to 10 hunger protest across the country.
The defendants who are said to be organisers of the protests were earlier arraigned on 6-count charges of alleged treason, intent to destabilize Nigeria, conspiracy to commit felony and inciting to mutiny which is an offence punishable under section 97 of the penal code.
The protesters, Michael Adaramoye also known as Lenin, Aderemi Abayomi, Suleiman Yakubu, Opaoluwa Simon, Angel Innocent, Buhari Lawal, Mosiu Sadiq, Bashir Bello, Nuradeen Khamis and Abdulsalam Zubairu are listed as the 1st to 10th defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CR/454/2024.
However, when the matter was called up on Friday, the Police prosecution and senior lawyer, Simon Lough, informed the court that they have filed an amended charge to include an 11th defendant, Daniel Akande.
The charge further increases the count charges against the protesters from 6 to 8, in order to accommodate the 11th defendant.
Counsel for the 1st defendant, Marshall Abubakar objected to the amended charge, arguing that the prosecution should have sought the permission of the court before any amendments.
Anthony Itedjere, representing the 4th defendant, urged the court to dismiss the new charge as it is standing on no permission.
He also noted that 14 persons were named on the amended charge, while 11 persons were brought before the court.
“My lord, the amended charge has 11 defendants but each of the counts has 14 persons named who are supposed to take their plea to the counts.” Itedjere said.
“For this court to hear this matter, there must be service on all the defendants named in count 1 to 8 of the amended charge.
“We should also know that there is a British citizen on the list, it is good to portray the country in a good light. There was no permission of this court to file an amended charge,” he argued.
On his part, counsel for 5th and 11th defendant, Deji Adeyanju, said the prosecution should be given permission to amend his charge.
The lawyer said the 11th defendant was arrested in church about a month ago and the argument will not help him as he will not be joined to the case, but remain in custody.
Responding to the comments of the defense counsels, the prosecution Lough said all objections raised were premature as he was yet to move the application to amend his charges.
He insisted that there was no error in the amended charge, which can be made either orally or in a written form.
On the extra names, the senior advocate said they separated the three extra named persons and others, who are at large from the ones in court using a semi-colon, which distinguishes them, adding that no provision said defendants at large cannot be added to the charge.
Justice Nwite after listening to arguments of counsels, granted the prosecutor permission to move the amended charge.
When the charges were read to the defendants, they all pleaded not guilty to all 8 counts.
The judge re-granted all the defendants N10m bail each, with a surety in like sum.
Counsel for the 1st defendant, Abubakar, informed the court that only 7 out of original 10 persons were able to meet their bail conditions, while the remaining 3 could not meet up due to lack of funds and urged the court to vary their bail conditions.
Justice Nwite therefore fixed October 4 for hearing on variation of bail conditions and November 11 for continuation of trial.