Chris Awhawha
A Coalition of Northern Youths Groups on Friday, faulted the arrest and the ongoing arraignment, detention and prosecution of the under aged #EndBadGovernance protesters across the country.
The groups described it as inhumane and condescending, and called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to wade into the matter.
Ina statement, the Founder of Yan-Almajiri Endowment Initiative and BoT Chairman, Coalition of Northern Youths Group, Yahaya Mohammed Usman (Sai Baba) decried the ill-treatment and trauma the minors have been subjected to
He added that, “ they look very sick and are wriggling in pain on the floor of the court.”
The Federal Government on Friday arraigned 76 of the minors who looked malnourished, and four of them were hurriedly rushed out of the courtroom as they could not stand on their feet.
He said, “ In August this year, the Coalition of Northern Youth groups had called on the federal and state governments to grant amnesty to protesters arrested across the country, saying “it is to avoid further waste of scarce resources.”
The groups also called on President Tinubu and Northern Governors to establish a N250 billion Endowment for Technical and Vocational Training in all Islamiyya Schools across Northern Nigeria to help them get rehabilitated and reintegrated.
According to Yahaya “this call has become necessary on the face of the fact that most of those arrested are either poor ALMAJIRI children and or uneducated, unskilled and unemployed citizens who are all minors”
“We call for an urgent endowment fund for skills development and education of all minors in Nigeria: this has become necessary considering that the economic situation is hard for ordinary citizens.”