A human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Femi Falana, has reacted to the suggestion by Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice Tsoho, that the EndSars protesters are economic saboteurs.
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He recalled that the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, held a virtual meeting with the promoters in the wake of the peaceful protests.
He said consequent upon failure to persuade them to stop the protest, Emefiele resorted to obtaining ex parte order to freeze the accounts of the protest promoters
Falana, who is a lawyer to some of the EndSars protesters whose accounts were frozen, said he has persuaded his clients not to join issues with Justice Tsoho since their application seeking unfreezing their accounts is pending before the court.
He said, “Since the application of the 20 #EndSARS promoters seeking to quash the ex parte order freezing their bank accounts is pending before the Federal High Court presided over by the Honourable Justice R.A. Mohammed, I have persuaded our clients to refrain from joining issues with the Honourable Chief Judge over the controversial ex cathedra statement.”
He also explained that “the 20 #EndSARS were not sued as corporate bodies but as individuals whose names and bank accounts are listed in all the processes filed in the court by the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
Furthermore, Falana said the EndSars Protesters are not economic saboteurs but patriotic citizens
“I wish to say, without any fear of contradiction that the #EndSARS protesters are not economic saboteurs but patriotic citizens who protested against incessant police brutality.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the case was filed on October 20, 2020, while the order ex parte was issued on November 4, 2020, after the #EndSARS protests.” He said
TNL recalls that Hon. Justice Tsoho had on Tuesday during the ceremony marking the commencement of the 2020/2021 legal year of the Federal High Court in Abuja, tried to justify the order issued by another judge of the court, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, freezing the accounts of 20 #EndSARS promoters.
He said the CBN kept filing applications in their hundreds to tackle deliberate attempts to ruin the economy through money laundering.
“So if it was the #EndSARS people that were involved in the activities under cover then it is unfortunate for people to begin to call and vilify the court making damaging allegations against the court.” He added
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