Arrest of women protesters in Minna by police is unconstitutional

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the Niger State police command for applying brute force to arrest many women protesters in Minna Niger State over rising cost of living in the country.

The group in statement also kicked against the constant attempt by the Nigeria Police Force to illegally abridge, violently violate the constitutional freedoms of Nigerians including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

“This is the clearest sign that the current administration under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu may be preparing to transform into a dictatorial regime just as HURIWA is urging Nigerians to speak out loud and clear in denunciation of these brazen plots by the police to help the civilian politicians in government establish a totalitarian government whereby the rights of the people to refuse to accept evil policies of government would be established.

“Nigerians must say no to police brutality and denounce police unprofessional conducts and the attempts to stop Nigerians from protesting against anti-poor, anti-people and unpopular economic measures.

“These bad policies have sent hundreds of Nigerians to their earliest graves due to absolute poverty and the high costs of living in Nigeria which escalated since May 29th 2023 that President Tinubu came on board and increased the pump price of petrol by over 1,000 percent, has made life unbearable, brutish, intolerable harsh and absolutely and utterly meaningless.”

The group called on the Niger State government to free the arrested protesting women immediately because the police in Nigeria lacks the constitutional powers to deny the citizens of their most inalienable, universal and natural fundamental human rights domesticated in Chapter 4 of the Nigerian Constitution and recognised in a plethora of global human rights laws including the Universal Declaration of human rights, Covenant on civil and political rights and the African charter on human and peoples rights which Nigeria signed on to as a member of the United Nations and the African Union.

“The police in recent times in Imo, Nasarawa and now Niger states have deployed unconstitutional means to stop Nigerians from organising peaceful protests which are permitted under the constitution. This outrageous abuse of the constitutional freedoms will lead to violent protests if the police continue to muzzle peaceful demonstrations.

HURIWA said the action of the Niger state police command to arrest peaceful protesters amounted to an unmitigated insult to the constitution of Nigeria and asked the IGP to order the immediate release of these protesters.