Nigerian Police Arrest 17-Year-Old Orphan In Ekiti, Remanded By Court For Nine Months Without Lawyer

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Boluwatife Oladele, a 17-year-old epileptic patient, was illegally arrested and remanded for nine months at the correctional facility in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, according to SaharaReporters.

SaharaReporters gathered that Boluwatife was coming back from work when the operatives of the Nigerian police raided him in February 2021.

After spending 27 days in police custody due to lack of funds, Boluwatife who is an orphan was charged to court without any weapon found on him.

He appeared in court on June 24, on the count of conspiracy and conduct likely to breach of peace.

It was revealed that he could not get a lawyer to defend himself, because he did not have money, while the judge remanded him in the Nigerian prison without any date for the hearing of his case.

However, an activist, Moyinoluwa Olowoyo, who was detained for 30 days without trial for taking part in the #EndSARS demonstrations in Ekiti State, met Boluwatife in prison where the teenager shared his ordeal about what brought him to prison and how he was abandoned in the prison yard.

SaharaReporters learnt that Moyinoluwa, a 26-year-old student of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, who was arrested on October 20, 2020, by the Department of State Services in Ado Ekiti before being handed over to the State Criminal Investigation Department, got Boluwatife a lawyer from his own purse.

The lawyer make enquiries about Boluwatife's case file and he argued for a date for him.

Moyinoluwa who told SaharaReporters how and the condition she met Boluwatife at Ado Ekiti Prison, explained that she met the teenager in the prison, noting that the young Boluwatife had faced a trauma he would live to remember just because of the lawlessness in the country.

"Nine months ago, Boluwatife was coming back from work when men of the Nigeria police were raiding and they raided him. Boluwatife was not aware of anything as a young boy that went to work and was going home to meet his guardian; he was accosted by the men of the Nigerian police.

"Before he would start saying anything, they already moved him inside their van and headed to station, the next thing Boluwatife would hear was he should be preparing to go to court and defend himself.

"After he has spent 27days in police custody due to lack of funds and no parent (both parents are dead); he was charged to court on the count of conspiracy and conduct likely to breach of peace but because Boluwatife did not have any penny to get a lawyer to defend him, the judge decided to remand him in the Nigerian prison for over nine months without no date for the hearing of the case again.

"Fast forward to October 2021 when I was attacked and arrested during the EndSARS protest in Ado Ekiti. I was sent to prison where I met Boluwatife, and he shared his ordeal about what brought him to prison. He said they fixed no adjournment date for him. He had been neglected and abandoned in the prison yard. Boluwatife is among the few young boys I met in prison and I promised to make sure I fight for their release.

"After I regained my freedom on 22nd October, I got Boluwatife a lawyer from my own purse; the lawyer made enquiries about his case file and he argued for a date for him so that he could be reproduced before the lordship of Magistrate Court 1, Ado Ekiti.

"Monday, November 29, 2021, Boluwatife appeared in the magistrate court for the continuation and hearing of his case but this time around, he had been granted bail and he did not have to return to prison anymore once his bail terms were met."