Prof Chidi Odinkalu, a human rights activist and senior lawyer, has berated the Nigerian Judiciary for joining forces with the executive to oppress the suffering citizens and depriving them their basic fundamentals human rights.

Odinkalu, a law Professor and former chairman National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), who has been fierce critic of Nigerian judiciary stated this while reacting to the arraignment of malnourished children at the Federal High Court by the President Bola Tinubu-led government in Abuja for participating in the #EndBadGovernance in Nigeria in August.

Newsmen had earlier reported that some underaged protesters who had been in detention since August collapsed in the courtroom when they were brought for arraignment.

It should be recalled that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja had granted an ex-parte application which sought for an order to keep the detained protesters for 60 days to allow them time to conclude their investigation and charge them to court.

Reacting to the development, Prof. Odinkalu accused the judiciary of actively facilitating the pre-trial detention of the oppressed children, who were rounded up in the streets of Abuja.

Lambasting Nigeria’s judicial system which he described as being “committed to discarding pretences of law,” the legal luminary said these are same judiciary and security agencies that cannot find former governor of Kogi State Yahaya Bello and bring him to court to account for his eight years in office or arrest and bring bandits that have hold Nigeria to ransom.

He said, “Someone went to the streets of Abuja, rounded up oppressed children, herded them into pre-trial detention with the active facilitation of the judiciary in Abuja; All for the edification of temporal power. #Nigeria’s judicial system is committed to discarding pretences of law.

“These are the same judiciary & security agencies that cannot find @OfficialGYBKogi or bring him to court or to accoint; that manage to miss the bandits & their ransom loot all the time; that certify election rigging as entirely lawful. This makes “disgraceful” sound endearing!”