20th January, 2024
By Sunday John
The 38 protesters arrested for alleged public disturbance in Lafia following Friday’s Supreme Court judgment which upheld the election of Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state will spend the weekend in prison.
DSP Ramhan Nansel, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state confirmed the arrest and prosecution of the protesters by the Nasarawa Police command.
The 38 protested were immediately charged to court and remanded at the Lafia Custodial Centre.
They were charged before the Chief Magistrates’ Court 3 Lafia for the offence.
When the matter was mentioned for hearing by the prosecuting counsel, Danjuma Allu, the Chief Magistrate, Mohammed Abdullahi Lanze, reserved the ruling on their bail application to Monday.
Earlier, Illiya Ashokpa, Defence Counsel, applied that the court should grant them bail, but his application was turned down.
The protesters comprised five males and 33 females.
The Supreme Court had on Friday, affirmed the victory of Gov. Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor of the state.
Governor Sule had yesterday told the protesters, who were supporters of David Umbugadu, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP that their protests were in vain as the Supreme Court is the final arbiter in electoral disputes in Nigeria.
The Governor said he had been overwhelmingly voted for by the people of the state.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of Umbugadu against Sule’s election as the governor of Nasarawa State.