Published 13th Apr, 2022

By Mariam Hamzat

Nine Oyo State youths arrested in November 2020 over the nationwide #EndSARS protest are still in prison facing trial for murder and other charges.

Rasheed Tiamiyu, Sodiq Ariyo, Afeez Ariyo, Ikechukwu Eze, Adesina Ademuyiwa, Oyewole Olumide, Taoreed Abiodun, Adekunle Moruf and Ikenna Amaechi were picked up at different locations in Ibadan, the capital of the state, by the police.

All nine are being tried for the murder of a police inspector killed by hoodlums during the #EndSARS protest, and the possession of illegal firearms, among others.

It was gathered that policemen from Ojoo Police Station, alongside some officers of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Dugbe, Ibadan, raided different houses in November and arrested the detainees.

Sine then, they have appeared in court at various intervals, but have not been released or granted bail.

Eniola Solomon, the coordinator of the TakeItBack Movement in Oyo State, told FIJ that it had been established that the detainees were not a part of the #EndSARS protest. In the three CCTV footage which captured protesters, none of them appeared, according to Solomon.

“We keep going for trial and the police are using delay tactics to delay things. Eventually, the justice in charge, Justice Mashood Abass of the State High Court 2 was promoted and the case was reassigned to Justice Labiran Akintola of Court 7 around December,” he said.

Solomon also said that efforts to get them out on bail have been futile because the motion for bail has not been moved.

“They said they are starting the case afresh because they don’t have any evidence to persecute them. The judge who is supposed to complete the case has supposedly listened to nine of sixteen witnesses,” said Solomon.

He stated that the police simply picked those living around the area they raided just to have someone to blame.

“About three of them sell used clothes around the police station. They’d been having issues with that police station about some unofficial weekly tax placed on them before the protest, and that probably made them targets for the police,” Solomon said.

Some of the policemen were called forward as witnesses during the trial and they confessed to knowing them personally before the protest, Solomon told FIJ.

This report was produced through the ‘You Matter in this Matter’ Project being implemented by YouthHubAfrica, Onelife Initiative, Cedar Seed Foundation and FIJ, with support from Voice Nigeria.

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