Human right activist Deji Adeyanju who was arrested at the scene of a protest against police partisanship in Nigerian politics has been remanded again in prison after being released on bail.
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Deji Adeyanju who is the convener of Concerned Nigerians Group, was remanded barely 24 hours after he was released from Keffi Prisons.
He was remanded by a Wuse II Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, following his arraignment on charges of cyber-stalking, inciting disturbance and criminal defamation by the police.
Hearing for his bail application was moved till Thursday by the presiding magistrate Idiat Akanni.
Adeyanju was arrested by the police during a protest he led to the police headquarters last Wednesday to protest the partisan roles of the police in sealing off the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.
He was arrested alongside two other campaigners, Daniel Abobama and Boma Williams, and arraigned before the Karshi Magistrates’ Court, which remanded them in the Keffi Prisons in Nasarawa State.
Adeyanju and his colleagues were charged with criminal conspiracy, public nuisance, disturbance of public peace and threat to public security and safety, criminal defamatory and derogatory conduct against constituted authority and breach of law and order under sections 96, 113, 114, 152, 183 and 391 of the Penal Code.
While the presiding magistrate, Aliu Kagarko had granted them bail, Adeyanju and co were unable to meet the bail conditions immediately.
The court had asked the accused persons to produce two sureties, one of who must be a level 14 civil servant with a cover letter from his superior, and also a businessman with a verifiable address.
The accused persons met their bail conditions on Monday after which they were released; Adeyanju was however re-arrested immediately and re-arraigned on new charges while Abobama and Williams regained their freedom.
Adeyanju and his co-accused had stormed the police headquarters to express concern about the current state of affairs in the country “where the Nigeria Police Force is increasingly becoming a tool to be used against real and perceived political enemies of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress.”
Spokesperson for the Nigeria Police, Jimoh Moshood tried to justify the arrests of the protesters saying they were picked up by the police for breaking the law.
He stated that their alleged defamatory comments and utterances were capable of “inciting public disturbance, threat to public security and safety, criminal defamatory and derogatory conduct against constituent authority and breach of law and order.”
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