…Frowns at mob violence against women
The Network on Police Reform (NOPRIN) has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to the security agencies to deal ruthlessly with anyone who attempts to snatch ballot box during the forthcoming general elections as appalling.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on Wednesday, the National Coordinator of NOPRIN, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma further described the order as unlawful, reckless and subversive of the Nigerian Constitution which guaranteed rights to life, presumption of innocence and due process.
Nwanguma noted that the Constitution required that anybody suspected of or caught committing a crime should be arrested, investigated and charged if there’s credible evidence adding that the law didn’t prescribe shoot on sight.
While admitting that the law also regulates use of firearms by law enforcement agencies, he however observed that the law was clear on the circumstances and how law enforcement agencies could use firearms.
According to him,”Law enforcement agents are not under obligation to obey unlawful orders such as the one by the president. Obedience to unlawful orders is also not an excuse to act contrary to law.
“Law enforcement agents are called upon to ignore the President’s unfortunate shoot on sight order. They must be guided by professionalism and other principles of democratic policing”.
He however holds that snatching of ballot boxes was a crime saying that law enforcement agents must apprehend any one or group involved and prosecute them in accordance with the law.
“The directive speaks to the value the president places on human lives. Election is not an act of war”, he added.
In a related development, the National Coordinator of NOPRIN, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma has condemned in totality, the increasing spate of mob violence against women accused of crime.
Nwanguma who made this known in a press briefing in Lagos Wednesday recalled that the group had watched with outrage viral videos of women stripped, publicly paraded and subjected to dehumanizing and brutal treatment while being video recorded.
“One of such videos of this barbaric action was about a young woman in Edo accused of stealing a phone. She was stripped, tied hands back, paraded and beaten by a gang of men with some women in the crowd watching, cheering and joining in condemning the young woman.
“A more recent one in Delta State was about a woman similarly tied hands and legs, publicly paraded and viciously attacked, slapped, kicked, punched and hit with wooden objects. This was on the orders of the SSA to the Delta State Governor who alleged that the woman ‘disrespected’ him.
“Again, women were in the crowd cheering as their fellow woman was being dehumanized.
“This action amounts to sexual violence and torture. It’s an act of discrimination based on gender and reflects the prevalent traditional prejudice that discriminates against women, regards them as inferior and seeks to subjugate them.
“These act of barbarism must be punished and deterred”, he said.
He therefore commended the Inspector General of Police for his prompt response in ordering the arrest and persecution of perpetrators in the two cases saying, “This is important to send a clear message to the perpetrators and others like them that it is not just barbaric but also a crime for people to take laws into their hands in such or any other manner”.
He continued, “We live- or ought to be living- in a civilized and democratic society. Democracy is protected by the rule of law and any act that undermines the rule of law threatens democracy. This particular act take us back to the stone age”.
