By Ishaya Ibrahim
Nigerians have condemned last week raid on women in Abuja by the authorities of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
The women were arrested at a nightclub by FCTA task force for no offence other than unwinding at the place.
On Twitter, many Nigerians called out the Police for preying on innocent women rather being in Zamfara to confront the bandits that are making life hellish for the people of the state.
But the head of Police Complaint Unit, Yomi Shogunle, justified the attack on the women, arguing that they were prostitutes and that the laws and religion of Abuja residents abhor the act.
But a coalition of civil society organisations which cut across Women’s Organizations, Activists, Scholars, Civil Society and Human Rights Organisations in Nigeria, has strongly condemned the raids, describing it as public humiliation, assault, sexual harassment of the women who are more than 100.
They said the agents who raided the club assaulted, sexually harassed andraped some of the women, leaving many with injuries in their vaginas, while many were psychologically traumatised.
“They targeted and violated young women in the club, particularly dancers and strippers. No attempts were made to question the club proprietors or arrest the male guests. In fact, several female guests in or around the night club were also arrested and harassed. Mostly, young women were brutally dragged out by male officers who beat them, and some women were stripped naked. The violence inflicted on these women was vicious and targeted. They suffered this treatment because they were women and these officers were confident that they can get away with it,” the joint statement reads.
Here’s an excerpt of the statement
“We were further shocked by the reports that a mobile court at the old parade ground in Area 10, Abuja in the afternoon of 29th April 2019, convicted many of these women in unfair trials and some of them sentenced to prison or fine for an offence that is unknown to law.
“Nigeria is signatory to many international and regional human rights treaties including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); and the Protocol to the African Charter Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) which protect the human rights of women to dignity, equality and freedom from violence. The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act applicable in the FCT also prohibits all forms of violence against all persons irrespective of gender, and regardless of whether it was committed in private or in public while stipulating punishments for offenders and remedies for victims. The 1999 Nigerian Constitution equally provides for fundamental human rights including the rights to dignity (section 34); right to a fair hearing (section 36), and right to freedom from discrimination (section 42).
“In October 2017, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in the Dorothy Njemanze & 3 Ors v. the Federal Republic of Nigeria, pronounced that the act of targeting women and harassing them by the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and other state security agents constituted gender-based discriminatory treatment, torture, cruel inhuman and degrading treatment. The Court also recognised that Nigeria has a duty to investigate, discipline and prosecute persons responsible for violating human rights. Therefore, the failure or refusal to do so in the cases reported to it amounted to a violation of the State’s international obligations.
“These raids by the FCT Joint Task Force are in contravention to the laws and treaties which Nigeria is bound to upload. We, therefore, demand, that the federal authorities particularly the Police and the FCT Minister to, investigate all the allegations of abuse, ill-treatment and violence including rape and other forms of sexual assaults, to which these women were subjected, and where the agents are found culpable, prosecute them before a competent court without delay. The government should also provide psychosocial support and compensation for the victims.
“We call on the government to account for the wellbeing and bodily integrity of all the women for the period they have been held in detention by the state.
“We call on the government to release the women immediately and unconditionally from this unlawful and discriminatory detention and from the proposed “forced three months arbitrary rehabilitation at the FCT rehabilitation centre in Lugbe,” which is an attempt to further impact on the women’s dignity.
“The continued harassment of women by the FCT joint task force should stop immediately as it is gender discrimination, a violation of human rights, unlawful, unconstitutional and total disregard for the rule of law.
“The undersigned will not hesitate to take legal actions to challenge the constitutionality of the raids, targeted against women if the state does not take immediate action to stop these harassments.”
The undersigned:
1. ACTS Generation
2. Alliances for Africa
3. Amnesty International Nigeria
4. Betty Abah
5. Bridget Osakwe
6. CEE-HOPE Nigeria
7. Change Managers International Network
8. Country Associates Network (CANET)
9. Dorothy Njemanze Foundation
10. Echoes of Women in Africa Initiatives (ECOWA)
11. Education is a Vaccine
12. Equity Advocates
13. Fame Foundation
14. FIDA Nigeria
15. FIDA Nigeria
16. Gender and Environmental Risk Reduction Initiative (GERI)
17. Girl Child Africa
18. Haly Hope Foundation
19. Ier Jonathan-Ichaver
20. Josephine Effah Chukwuma
21. Juliana Itohan Oyegun
22. Lillian Okenwa
23. Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
24. Ovie Brume Foundation
25. Partners West Africa Nigeria
26. Partnership for Justice
27. Peyi Soyinka-Airewele
28. Project Alert on Violence Against Women
29. Society of Media in Public Health
30. Vision Spring Initiatives
31. Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC)
32. Women Environmental Programme
33. Women for Peace and Gender Equality Initiative
34. Women Foundation Nigeria
35. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Nigeria
36. Women’s Rights and Health Project