Nine #EndSARS Protesters Regain Freedom After Two Years

Fresh information has emerged that nine people arrested and detained in relation to the #EndSARS protest of 2020 have been reportedly released on Tuesday.

Naija News reports that the release of the nine persons from the Oyo Agodi Prison was confirmed by the activist and the Oyo State leader of the Take It Back (TIB) Movement, Solomon Emiola.

It was gathered that Emiola and his movement who have been agitating against the release of the nine protesters from the Oyo prison told Punch, “We are just returning from the prison, the nine of them have gone home with their families.”

It was learnt that their release was against the backdrop of the call by Oyo State Chief Judge, Justice Munga Abimbola who ordered the release of 58 detainees who had spent long periods in the state prisons.

Justice Abimbola on Monday declared that prolonged detention was a breach of people’s constitutional rights, reiterating that the stand of the law is that a “person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

The CJ made this declaration at the Agodi Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service, which he visited, as part of a three-day tour of prisons within the state.

Naija News gathered that the names of the nine protesters released include Adeshina Muyiwa, Ikechuckwu Eze, Ariyo Sodiq, Ikenna Amaechi, Oyewole Olumide, Ariyo Afeez, Taoreed Abiodun, Adekunle Moruf, and Rasheed Tiamiyu.

The protesters were said to be charged with offences ranging from murder to stealing police rifles and setting the police station ablaze, among others, in connection to the 2020 protest against the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit of the Nigeria Force.