Kudos to Justice Onagoruwa

Justice O. A. Onagoruwa of an Ogun State Magistrate Court in Abeokuta deserves commendations for dismissing the criminal charges filed against four of the #RevolutionNow protesters in the state. The protesters, Daniel Abraham, Festus Afofun, Kolawole Seun and Okoro Romeo were arrested on August 5 while participating in the national #RevolutionNow protest convened by detained activist Omoyele Sowore. They were charged with conspiracy, unlawful assembly and conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace. Justice Onagoruwa courageously agreed with the no-case submission made by defence lawyer, Inibehe Effiong and ruled that

“the prosecution failed to establish any of the essential elements of the three counts.”

The defence lawyer remarked: “The ruling is a vindication of our position that the Nigerian government had no basis in law to have arrested, detained or arraigned citizens who called for revolution during the peaceful protest of August 5, 2019. I have consistently said that the case is a disgraceful attempt by the government to silence voices of dissent. This is just the beginning of the end of the shambolic attempt by this regime to illegally deploy the judicial process in a dubious and immoral manner.”

The hero here is Justice Onagoruwa, for refusing to be intimidated by government. Constitutionally, citizens have a right to protest peacefully. The arrest of #RevolutionNow protesters was unlawful.