Incensed by the arrest of #EndSARS protesters across the country, a Chief Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Niyi Akintola, has announced free legal services for them.
The legal luminary said his chambers would provide free legal representation for the detained protesters in Akure, Ado Ekiti, Abeokuta, Ilorin, Ibadan, Osogbo, Lagos and Abuja.
In a statement in Ibadan, Akintola said the pro bono legal services followed the decision of the democratic wing of Egbe Amofin Odu’a.
Persecondnews recalls that some Nigerians who took part in the #EndSARS protest were arrested and detained by the police in some parts of the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the lnspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu to dissolve the notorious SARS.
Adamu had on Sunday announced the dissolution but Nigerians still demand the arrest and prosecution of errant SARS officers.
Akintola said: “Many of our colleagues of Yoruba extraction have placed their colleagues in chambers on stand by for this purpose in Akure, Ado Ekiti, Abeokuta, Ilorin, Ibadan, Osogbo, Lagos and Abuja.
“Feel free to contact the undersigned if you or your relation is unjustifiably detained in any part of towns or state mentioned as a result of protests against the barbaric acts of FSARS.
“The death of our compatriots in Ogbomoso and indeed of any Nigerian in such a gruesome manner over a constitutionally guaranteed right is most unfortunate and condemnable.
“But the attack on the palace of our most revered father and Monarch of Ogbomosoland is an apostasy, sacrilegious, barbaric, crude, uncouth and most unreasonable in the circumstances of the prevailing situation in the country.
“The revered Kabiyesi is neither the IGP, CP nor the Chief Security Officer of Oyo State. The Kabiyesi is not even the Local Government Chairman of any of five Local Governments in Ogbomosholand.
“Why visiting the revered Kabiyesi palace with such barbaric acts of hooliganism and violence? Why fighting a good cause with wrong weapons? The acts of violence on the revered Palace is un-Yoruba-like.”
He also said those who destroyed and vandalised the sacred palace of the revered monarch should also be brought to book.
“These unbecoming acts of criminality must not be swept under the carpet. A judicial commission of inquiry into the crimes should be instituted immediately by the governor of Oyo State.”
Meanwhile, Ogun Gov. Dapo Abiodun and his Lagos State counterpart, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu have called on police authorities to release detained protesters including those already charged to court to stem the protest.
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