A number of youths from Kogi State participated in a May Day solidarity walk in Abuja yesterday to express their dissatisfaction with the way the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) handled the corruption charges against Yahaya Bello, the immediate former governor of Kogi State.

“Who have nothing whatsoever to do with whatever the Commission is investigating their parents for,” youths protested, calling it a systematic violation of the constitutionally granted rights of the former governor’s children.

“Let it be on record that we do not support corruption in any manner,” declared Comrade Mohammed Abdulrazak, the president of the Kogi Independent Youths Association, who also led the walk.

“We oppose the practice of carrying out law enforcement tasks without adhering to the proper procedures, particularly when it involves involving innocent children. They may suffer lifelong psychological harm as a result.

“Children don’t play politics. Children can’t be punished for the sins of their parents even when such has been proven. Nobody deserves to be punished for a crime they know nothing about, not to talk of innocent children.

“Today’s rally is the first in the series of actions we have laid out until justice is done in this matter. All these concerns will be presented to the National Human Rights Commission any moment from now for appropriate intervention especially to protect the rights of the innocent children who have been dragged into this political war by the EFCC.”

He added, “As educated youths who are versed in the practice and procedures concerning the arrest, arraignment, and prosecution of an accused person, the due process of the law is sacrosanct and must be duly adhered to and complied with.

“Former Governor Yahaya Bello has not been shown any fairness, which is a cardinal principle of law. He has not been served with the notice of charges against him, or arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction by the EFCC, but he has already been arraigned, tried, and convicted by the EFCC going by their utterances in the media and unnecessary display of executive drama.”

Although Abdulrazak noted that the 1999 Constitution, as amended, guarantees an accused person’s innocence unless and until proven guilty, he also said that the EFCC had abandoned all caution in its pursuit of prosecuting the former governor Bello, turning his disastrous arrest into a soap opera on social media and television.

“This is being done to demonise him,” he said.

“We know that before an accused person is arraigned before a court for arraignment and trial, service of charges against him is usually the condition precedent, except where the accused person is on the run.

“Former Governor Yahaya Bello was not and has never been on the run. In fact, he has an active and running injunction from a court of competent jurisdiction that forbids EFCC from arresting him to which EFCC had appealed against in the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja until they recently withdrew it,” he said.