Network on Police Reform writes Osinbajo on over 100 detained IPOB women
Posted by News Express | 24 August 2018 | 1,670 times
•Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
August 23, 2018
The Vice President
Federal Republic of Nigeria
The Presidency
Aso Rock Villa
Abuja
Your Excellency
NOPRIN REQUESTS YOUR INTERVENTION TO ENSURE THE
RELEASE OF WOMEN ARRESTED, ARRAIGNED AND HELD IN
PRISON CUSTODY FOR EXPRESSING THEIR RIGHT TO FREEDOM
OF EXPRESSION
Network on Police Reform in Nigeria writes to express serious concerns about the
increasing repression of basic freedoms of Nigerian citizens by security agencies in
Nigeria.
Just few days after the Nigeria Police exposed the country to shame by arresting a
Premium Times reporter, detaining him in an attempt to force him to disclose the
source of a story he wrote and eventually charged him on frivolous allegations for
refusing to compromise internationally recognized journalism principles and
privileges of not disclosing source of information , we are confronted with yet
another episode of arresting unarmed, harmless women for embarking on a
peaceful protest demanding the release of their leader.
The arrest, last Friday by Police in Imo State, of over hundred women
protesting the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB) for allegedly conducting an unlawful assembly and
charging them to court leading to their being remanded in prison does great
damage to the democratic credentials of the government.
According to reports, some of the women, mostly of middle age and from the
Southeast states, marched peacefully through the streets of Owerri and did not
engage in violence.
The women were reported to be chanting, dancing and displaying different
placards calling on the Federal Government to release Kanu.
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 calls on the Vice President to order the immediate and unconditional
release of the women and to order an end to further police harassment of citizens
and abridgement of citizens rights.
Yours sincerely,
Okechukwu Nwanguma
National Coordinator
Source: News Express
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