No fewer than 100 civil society groups under “Project-Free Nasarawa 30” have demanded the immediate release of 30 women arrested and detained by the Nigeria Police Force for protesting naked in the state against the outcome of governorship election in the state.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Nasarawa State command of the Nigeria Police Force, had confirmed the arrest of no fewer than 30 protesters for protesting against the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment which affirmed Governor Abdullahi Sule as winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in the state.
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu, had dragged Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to court, challenging his 2023 election victory.
The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal had on October 2, 2023 sacked the governor and declared Ombugadu as winner of the poll.
Unsatisfied with the judgment, Sule approached the Appeal Court where he was declared as the actual winner of the election.
This prompted Ombugadu to approach the Supreme Court for the final verdict on the matter, which also affirmed Governor Sule’s election.
Confirming the arrest of the women, the Nasarawa State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ramhan Nansel, said that apart from the 38 suspects arrested by the command, 29 motorcycles were recovered by its personnel during the protests which took place in Lafia, the state capital.
The police spokesperson further explained that the protesters were arrested because they violated a peace agreement recently reached by stakeholders of the APC and PDP in the state ahead of the Supreme Court judgment.
SaharaReporters earlier also reported that the Chairman of the PDP in the State, Francis Orogu, said that Governor Sule had a hand in the ordeal being faced by the detained protesters and PDP women.
At the resumption of hearing on the bail application on January 22, counsel to the defendants, Barr. Ayiwulu Baba Ayiwulu relied on points of law to support his plea for the court to tender justice with mercy by granting the defendants bail.
While the Counsel to the Commissioner of Police, Danjuma Allu, on his part argued that the complainant had seven days to reply to the bail application and urged the court to grant him a short date to reply in accordance with the provision of the law.
After listening to both counsels, the Chief Magistrate, Mohammad Abdullahi Lanze adjourned the court’s sitting to January 25, for the hearing of the application for the bail of the 38 suspects.
The Chief Magistrate also ordered the Commissioner of Police to produce the defendants in court on the said date for hearing of the bail application.
However, the PDP Chairman accused the State Governor, Abdullahi Sule of having a hand in the ordeal being faced by the women, noting that they had held several prayer sessions and staged numerous peaceful protests against his earlier declaration as Governor by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Orogun called on the various Civil Society Organisations and non-governmental organisations in the state to rise up to the occasion and rescue the protesters from political vendetta.
In a statement jointly signed by over 100 civil society groups on Tuesday, the groups said that Nigerians are unhappy to hear of the arrest, prosecution and persecution of the over 30 women in Nasarawa, among others, for exercising their rights to protest against “an INEC instigated miscarriage of justice in the Nasarawa gubernatorial election of 2023, and the decision of the Supreme Court which upheld the results as declared.”
The groups stated that “The prosecution of these 30 women shows the failure of the Nigerian Police Force and the Government of Nasarawa State in Nigeria to uphold the right of citizens under the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to protest, assemble and freely express themselves.
“These women were nude, demonstrating clearly that they were both committed to peaceable protest & unarmed. It is a travesty to then accuse them of being violent when in fact, they were the people violated by the attack from the uniformed personnels, including with projectiles.”
The groups recalled that “Security agents, nearly all of them male, assaulted, beat up, shot at, and seriously injured some of these women in clear violation of the Constitution and in full public view. Locking them up in indefinite pre-trial detention at the instance of those whom they were protesting against constitutes political persecution.”
According to them, “The misuse of security services and the abuse through the judiciary to promote partisan propaganda and political agenda should be rejected by all and it is upon this ideological and ethical basis that *Project - Free Nasarawa 30* is rallying its regional and international network to ensure that the further violation of the rights of these women stops with a call on the government of Nasarawa State to end the abusive use of state power
“Project- Free Nasarawa 30 is a national and non-partisan coalition comprising of civil right activists, citizens' journalists, rights' organisations and international advocacy and solidarity groups demanding the immediate release of the Nasarawa 30, a group of women currently in jail over no crime they committed even as contained in the unacceptable charges filed by the current Nasarawa State government against these women for exercising their rights to assemble and express themselves.
“Project - Free Nasarawa 30 rejects is totally the tactics and aggression against these women, and calls for the immediate review of their bail conditions to grant them freedom without the culture of punitive bail terms that have been unethically and wrongly adopted by the current judicial bench to justify empty allegations against the Nasarawa 30.
“An attack on the Nasarawa 30 is an attack on all women across the globe. End the persecution now! Free Nasarawa 30 unconditionally today!”