Nigerian Police Raid 17-Year-Old Orphan In Ekiti, Remanded By Court For Nine Months Without Lawyer

Boluwatife Oladele, a 17-year-old epileptic patient, was unlawfully detained and remanded at the Ado Ekiti Correctional Facility for nine months.

Boluwatife was returning home from work when the Nigerian police raided him in February 2021, according to SaharaReporters.

Boluwatife, an orphan, was charged in court without a weapon after spending 27 days in police jail owing to a lack of cash.

On June 24, he appeared in court on charges of conspiracy and behavior likely to cause a breach of the peace.

He was unable to hire a lawyer to defend himself due to a lack of funds, and the judge detained him in a Nigerian prison without setting a date for his case to be heard.

However, an activist named Moyinoluwa Olowoyo, who was held for 30 days without charge for participating in the #EndSARS demonstrations in Ekiti State, visited Boluwatife in prison and told him about his story, including how he was abandoned in the prison yard.

According to SaharaReporters, Moyinoluwa, a 26-year-old student of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, who was arrested by the Department of State Services in Ado Ekiti on October 20, 2020, before being handed over to the State Criminal Investigation Department, paid for Boluwatife’s lawyer out of his own pocket.

The lawyer inquired about Boluwatife’s case file and urged for him to be given a date.

Moyinoluwa, who informed SaharaReporters how and in what condition she encountered Boluwatife at Ado Ekiti Prison, said that she met the teenager at the prison, stressing that the young Boluwatife had experienced a horror that he would never forget due to the country’s lawlessness.

“Nine months ago, Boluwatife was coming back from work when men of the Nigeria police were raiding and they raided him. Boluwatife was not aware of anything as a young boy that went to work and was going home to meet his guardian; he was accosted by the men of the Nigerian police.

“Before he would start saying anything, they already moved him inside their van and headed to station, the next thing Boluwatife would hear was he should be preparing to go to court and defend himself.

“After he has spent 27days in police custody due to lack of funds and no parent (both parents are dead); he was charged to court on the count of conspiracy and conduct likely to breach of peace but because Boluwatife did not have any penny to get a lawyer to defend him, the judge decided to remand him in the Nigerian prison for over nine months without no date for the hearing of the case again.

“Fast forward to October 2021 when I was attacked and arrested during the EndSARS protest in Ado Ekiti. I was sent to prison where I met Boluwatife, and he shared his ordeal about what brought him to prison. He said they fixed no adjournment date for him. He had been neglected and abandoned in the prison yard. Boluwatife is among the few young boys I met in prison and I promised to make sure I fight for their release.

“After I regained my freedom on 22nd October, I got Boluwatife a lawyer from my own purse; the lawyer made enquiries about his case file and he argued for a date for him so that he could be reproduced before the lordship of Magistrate Court 1, Ado Ekiti.

“Monday, November 29, 2021, Boluwatife appeared in the magistrate court for the continuation and hearing of his case but this time around, he had been granted bail and he did not have to return to prison anymore once his bail terms were met.”