The alleged unlawful detention by the Nigeria Police of a member of the National Youth Service Corps who currently works as a software developer with a PR/Communications firm (name withheld) in Lagos State has been described as one of the most heinous crimes against humanity amongst the police that ought to be eliminated.
HURIWA said there are several armed robbers embedded within the Nigeria Police Force causing grave damage to the institutional image of the Nigeria Police Force, wondering why the nation’s police hierarchy is not perturbed by the multiple cases of armed robbery involving their servicemen.
This was the conclusion of the leading civil rights advocacy group, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) in a reaction to the information in the media that a police team picked the intern after complaining about his hairstyle, labeling him a ‘Yahoo boy’ (internet fraudster).
The Civil Rights group said it was animalistic and primitive that the NYSC’ member, Mr. Daniel was slapped, assaulted and taken to Araromi Police Station at Adamo in Ikorodu where he was asked to pay for his freedom just as the alleged police personnel have been identified as CP Strike Team, Anti-Cultism and Anti-Kidnapping Unit (Ikorodu annex).
HURIWA has specifically lamented that the pattern of systematic dehumanization of Nigerian youths by the police on nebulous and unlawful grounds have become very entrenched within the ranks and file of the Nigeria Police Force, regretting that some uniform men have become armed robbers under the guise of arresting those they wrongly termed as fraudsters without any shreds of evidence or empirical proofs even as a friend of Daniel, identified as Patrick, recounted the ordeal of his friend at the weekend, revealing that the victim is “very traumatized”.
HURIWA said, “these gross human rights abuses by the police which have dovetailed into pure criminality and armed robbery are to put it mildly grave violations of the fundamental human rights provisions of chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Similarly, HURIWA has described as unsustainable and unconstitutional the decision of the Abuja federal High Court validating a regulation of the Nigeria Police Force that prohibits single female police operatives from getting pregnant whilst unmarried. “Why would single police operatives who are women being sacked for becoming pregnant but their opposite gender of same single status are not dismissed even with cases of many of them putting many girls in the family way?”
HURIWA said the decision of the Court was sequel to an action filed by Nigerian Bar Association querying the legality of the provision which, it argued, was not only in conflict with the 1999 constitution (as amended), but also amounted to discrimination against an unmarried female police officer.
Citing the case of Omolola Olajide, a female police officer that was sacked in Ekiti State on January 26, 2021, for being pregnant while unmarried, the NBA maintained that such discriminatory Regulation has also rendered many female officers childless for fear of being sacked.
The NBA said, “The male police officers and married female police officers in the Nigeria Police Force are not subjected to similar discrimination, sanction, opprobrium, and indignity.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), Police Service Commission, and the Nigeria Police Force were listed as defendants in the suit.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Ekwo upheld the submissions of the AGF.
According to him, the suit lacked merit, stressing that such unmarried female police officers were aware of the regulation before they joined the force.
He said, “Where a law or regulation of an establishment identifies gender attributes or faults and seeks to regulate the vulnerabilities capable of negatively affecting the progress of such gender, such law or regulation is a warning aforehand and cannot be said to be discriminatory.
“In my opinion, the essence of this suit is to use the provision of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to lower the morale and professional standard of the NPF and this court will not give its imprimatur to such venture.
“It is my finding that in all that the plaintiff has posited, it has not pointed to any aspect of the regulation complained of, which violates the interest of public order or public morality, which will make it reasonably justifiable to invalidate Regulation 127 of the NPFR and I so hold.
“I find that the regulation in issue, in this case, is about conduct and nothing more. I find no compelling reason for this court to disrupt the discipline of the force or interfere in the regulation of the conduct of officers of the NPF….”
HURIWA has, therefore, urged the Nigerian Bar Association to proceed to the Court of Appeal to quash the bad verdict of the Federal High Court which effectively legalized discrimination on the basis of gender and status of the female police operatives which is offensive to Section 42(1) of the Nigerian Grund Norm.