9 #ENDSARS Protesters Released 3 Years After Arrest

Nine persons arrested during the infamous #ENDSARS protests and detained in the Oyo Agodi Prison since 2020 have regained their freedom.

The 9 #ENDSARS protesters identified as Adeshina Muyiwa, Ikechuckwu Eze, Ariyo Sodiq, Ikenna Amaechi, Oyewole Olumide, Ariyo Afeez, Taoreed Abiodun, Adekunle Moruf, and Rasheed Tiamiyu, were charged for offences ranging from murder to stealing of police rifles.

Other charges include setting police station ablaze, among others in connection to the 2020 protest against the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigeria Force.

Their release is coming barely 24 hours after the Oyo State Chief Judge ordered the release of 58 detainees who had spent long periods in the state prisons.

The Oyo State Chief Judge, Justice Munga Abimbola, while releasing the detainees, declared that prolonged detention was a breach of people’s constitutional right.

He reiterated that the stand of the law remains that a “person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

Also confirming the release of the 9 #ENDSARS protesters was an activist and the Oyo State leader of the Take It Back Movement, an organisation that had been calling for the release of the Oyo nine, Solomon Eniola.

“We are just returning from the prison, the nine of them have gone home with their families,” Eniola told Punch.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, they were pardoned and released as a part of the exercise being conducted by the State Chief Judge to decongest the prisons.