Rimazonte Ezekiel, a federal government prosecutor, has claimed that all #EndBadGovernance protesters arraigned before the court on Friday are adults.
The police arraigned 72 defendants for allegedly participating in the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest, which took place between August 1 and 10 across the country.
Many of the defendants were minors who were eventually granted N10 million bail.
However, many Nigerians have condemned the arraignment of the minors by the federal government.
Speaking to journalists after the court session, Ezekiel, who is the government’s counsel in the case, denied that there were minors among the suspects, adding that “most of them are married men”.
He claimed that the “small kids” present in court “came with their parents to greet their loved ones” and “are not even the real suspects standing trial in this case”.
“All of these boys that we brought to the court today are adults. Most of them are married men; none of them is a minor. Some of them are university graduates,” Ezekiel said.
“The small kids you see here came with their parents to greet their loved ones. They are not even the real suspects standing trial in this case.
“These boys were arrested in Kaduna and Zaria. These boys were using the Russian flag and calling on the military to remove our president.”
