A Magistrate Court in the Ogba area of Lagos State has ruled that a Beninese resident in Nigeria, Robert Kpanou, be freed from Kirikiri prison where he has been kept for the past 14 months.
Kpanou had wallowed in correctional facility over a year having been accused of joining Nigerians to demand a dissolution of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) via protests across the country last year.
According to FIJ, Kpanou was locked up with convicted criminals on October 22, 2020.
He, however, on Tuesday, regained freedom after the magistrate struck out his case for lack of merit.
He is now receiving medical attention with the hope of being healthy and physically sound.
Although the matter had been struck out since Friday last week, he was not set free until Tuesday with the help of Festus Ogun, his legal representative.
Sebastine, his brother, told FIJ that Robert neither participated in the 2020 #EndSARS protest nor caused any damage to property as hoodlums did, but was returning from work on that fateful day when he was stopped by policemen in the Lekki Tollgate area.
“He was a tiler. That day, he took a bike from CMS, because he was going to Agbara. When he got to the tollgate, police told him to stop. He came down from the bike and that was how they arrested him,” he said.
He said they both came into Nigeria in 2010, and had been working as tilers since then.
Robert was not the only innocent Nigerian arrested during and after the #EndSARS protest in 2020. Over 300 Nigerians were incarcerated.
While some have regained freedom, others continue to await justice.
