Court grants N10m bail to 18-year-old ‘#EndSARS protester’ who gave birth in prison

The Ondo high court has granted bail to Kemisola Ogunniyi, an 18-year-old girl detained over the #EndSARS protest in the state.

Ogunniyi, who has been in custody since October 2020, gave birth to a baby boy last Wednesday.

Omolara Adejumo, the judge, granted Kemisola bail in the sum of N10 million and a surety in like sum on Tuesday.

Ogunniyi was arrested with three others by security operatives during the #EndSARS protest last year.

She and the other suspects were accused of being part of those who razed the state secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akure during the protest.

They were charged with conspiracy to commit arson, riotous assembly, stealing, and malicious damage and were remanded in Surulere prison in Ondo west LGA of the state.

The other suspects are Ojo Samuel, Ayodele Bukunmi, and Ani Obinna.

In a letter to Oluwatoyin Akeredolu, Ondo chief judge, Tope Tomekun, her lawyer, had said Ogunniyi was innocent of the crime preferred against her.

Tomekun said the teenager was on her way to the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) to collect money for her mother’s treatment when she was apprehended by the Nigerian Army at random and handed over to the police for investigation.

“She was later alleged to be part of those who set the APC Secretariat, Akure, on fire during the EndSARS protest that took place in October 2020,” he had said.

“I write to you sir, first as a lawyer and in furtherance of my conviction as a believer in humanitarian cause of justice, to appeal to you sir, that for the sake of the sinless newborn baby and in the interest of justice, to give directive that this matter be given an urgent hearing.”