The Network on Police
Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) has written to Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s
Vice-President, over the arraignment and continued detention of 112 women in
Owerri, Imo State.
In the letter, NOPRIN
bemoaned that the arrest of the women, which it said came days after the arrest
and detention of a journalist, in an attempt to force him to disclose the
source of a story he wrote.
NOPRIN wrote: “Just few
days after the Nigeria Police exposed the country to shame by arresting a
Premium Times reporter…we are confronted with yet another episode of arresting
unarmed, harmless women for embarking on a peaceful protest demanding the
release of their leader.”
NOPRIN posited that the
arrest of the women who were exercising their constitutional right and
subsequent remand in prison portends damage to the democratic credentials of
the government.
The organisation urged the
Vice-President to immediately order the release of the women, adding that the
actions of the women do not, in any way, warrant being arrested.
“These actions do not
amount to conducting an illegal assembly and holding an unlawful protest, as
the Imo State Police Command claimed, and on the basis of which they arrested,
detained and charged the women.”
NOPRIN also urged Osinbajo
to work towards ending further police harassment of citizens and abridgement of
citizens’ rights.
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