A mobile court attached to the Lagos State Special Offences Task Force has set free 13 student protesters arrested in Lagos on Saturday.

The student protesters, who had earlier been remanded in prison custody on the order of the court, were brought to the court room on Thursday in police convoy. They were subsequently arraigned before Chief Magistrate P.E. Nwaka who had been presiding over the case.

At the arraignment on Thursday which was meant to be for the hearing of the students’ bail applications, counsels from the office of the State Attorney General informed the court that the case was being taken over based on the constitutional power of the State Attorney General.

After the court's recognition of the intervention, the state counsel entered a no-case submission before the Chief Magistrate, asking that all the charges against the affected student protesters be withdrawn unconditionally.

The presiding Chief Magistrate obliged the request and subsequently set the affected student protesters free.

The student protesters were: Abdulazeez Soneye, Idris Abogunloko, and Muyiwa Olaniyi, Femi Adeyeye, Toni Aina, Kodri Yaya, Asimi Oladime, Segun Okesola, Abiodun Agbeniyi and Toheed Oladimeji. Others were: Joseph Akanni, Lukumon Olusegun, and Ismahim Olalekan.

The protesters had been arrested after staging a protest at the premises of the Lagos-based Television station, Television Continental (TVC), demanding for the re-absorption of some of their colleagues who were rusticated by the management of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) over a protest last year. (Daily Trust)

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