Nine END SARS protesters arrested and detained at Correctional Centre Ibadan since 2020 have regained their freedom on Tuesday, January 10, 2023.
The ‘Oyo9’ whose names are:
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, 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.
The development comes barely 24 hours after the Oyo State Chief Judge ordered the release of 58 detainees who had spent long periods in the state prisons.
Releasing some inmates on Monday, the Oyo State Chief Judge, Justice Munga Abimbola, had declared that prolonged detention was a breach of people’s constitutional right, 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, where he visited, as part of a three-day tour of prisons within the state.
Confirm the release of the nine persons, 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 Emiola, said; “We are just returning from the prison, the nine of them have gone home with their families.”
The TIB members had yesterday protested the continued detention of the Oyo9 following the release of the 58 detainees. They argued that Oyo9 should have been part of those freed.
The state’s Attorney General and Attorney General, Professor Oyelowo Oyewo, could not be reached for comment because his known line did not go through.
The Nigerian News Agency also told correspondents he confirmed the release of the nine, noting that the release was part of decongestion of the prisons implemented by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
