Many women have been harassed physically and sexually by law enforcement officers on the ground of carrying out investigations. YEJIDE GBENGA- OGUNDARE reports that despite various legislations for protection, women are still endangered species as they face diverse abuses in the hands of operatives who are supposed to protect them.
Violence against women is a commonplace occurrence even in public institutions in Nigeria as a result of factors like gender discrimination and chauvinism. The ratification of major international anti-discrimination laws by Nigeria, and the enactment of national laws that prohibit violence have not statistically reduced this malaise, for various reasons including the patriarchal nature of the Nigerian society; influenced by culture and religion.
Violence against women in Nigeria is multifaceted, but one of the very concerning, for advocates, is violence perpetrated against women by law enforcement agents in the guise of doing their work, conducting searches and carrying out investigations.
Globally, police brutality against women is a daily reality especially in communities experiencing violence. Indeed, the World Health Organisation in a report stated that “sexual violence during conflict perpetrated by militia, military personnel or police is an important aspect of non-partner sexual violence” against women.”
While there have been countless issues of assault by police officers especially in Nigeria, advocates believe that police violence against women is difficult to quantify because it’s not exclusive to physical and sexual assaults but also manifests as a systemic violence in which the police refuse to get involved in cases of domestic assault, refuse to file reports or denying women access to justice through legal channels.
It is stated that a lot of police violence against women actually happens right within police stations but codes of silence among police officers prevent them from being held accountable for their actions.
2 million s3xually assaulted yearly
An estimated two million Nigerian women and girls are s3xually assaulted annually, according to Nigeria’s Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, but a few of these cases are reported due to the stigma associated with being a rape victim and the fear and distrust of the police. Nigerian security officials have been accused of abuse of power and implicated in gross human rights abuses, including illegal detention, arbitrary killings, extortion, bribery and s3xual abuse, with little or no effort to bring those responsible to justice, especially mistreating and harassing rape victims.
In 2019, police officials were reported to have intimidated a rape complainant in a high-profile rape case by invading her home and harassing her family.
In February 2020, a lawyer, Goodness Ibangah, who helped a young woman file a rape report, accused the police in Enugu state of assaulting her, leaving her hospitalised in critical condition. Ibangah had accompanied a 21-year-old woman to file a rape report at the Enugu State Police Area Command on January 27, 2020 and resisted pressure from the police to withdraw the complaint and settle the case outside of the criminal justice system.
And in response, the police raided the office of the Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL), a Nigerian women’s rights group where Ibangah works and attacked her. Ibangah had told Human Rights Watch that the police officers were hostile from the beginning; asking the victim if she was raped “with or without consent” and chided her for speaking about rape at her age. She had insisted and the victim was allowed to file the report after which the police officers started pressing her to convince the young woman to settle the case with the perpetrator’s family rather than go to court. They later accused Ibangah of preventing negotiations and an out-of-court settlement, threatened, verbally abused, manhandled, and beat her with their hands as they attempted to take her away from her office.
The cases reported during the Covid 19 pandemic raised a lot of uproar but nothing seems to have come out of it. A 23-year-old girl (name withheld) alleged that she was raped by a police officer enforcing the government’s coronavirus guidelines on July 28, 2020, while travelling on a public bus on her way to Port Harcourt for not wearing a face mask at a checkpoint in the town of Sakpenwa, 25km outside Bori, River State, at 6:30pm.
She said she was arrested by four police officers who drove her to a guest house where one of the officers raped her “till dawn” after “threatening to kill” her if she did not cooperate.
Also in Nkpor town, Anambra State, men wearing the yellow vests of a government COVID-19 compliance and enforcement team were allegedly seen raping a girl they had arrested for not wearing a face mask inside a vehicle the task force used for work.
In April 2020, more than 65 women were arrested during a raid on nightclubs in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, taken to a police station where bribes were demanded in exchange for their release and a few of the women who could not pay the money were allegedly raped, with the police officers using empty plastic bags of satchet water, instead of condoms!
A women’s rights activist, Dorothy Njemanze was arrested and assaulted by the police officer; physically, verbally and s3xually. She and three other women were accused of being prostitutes and unlawfully detained simply for being on the streets at night.
Speaking of her experience, she said “what happened to me is general practice in terms of how police interact with women in Nigeria. There’s no respect for women’s human rights.”
Law, lawyers speak
These acts of violence against women contradict the provisions of the Section 51(6)(a) of Police Act 2020 which stipulates that police are saddled with the responsibility of care and protection of the citizenry. This provision also restricts a male police officer from searching a female person and a female police officer cannot search a male person.
Why then do male police officers handle sensitive issues about women, search them and paw them s3xually when female officers are available? Writing on the power and limitation of the police to conduct search in Nigeria, a legal practitioner, Maryam Bello Esq, said the right of the police to conduct searches is an essential aspect of law enforcement in any society, including Nigeria and that it derived from the Nigerian Constitution, which outlines the powers and limitations of law enforcement agencies. He said that and Section 59 of the Police Act 2020, to ensure the safety of the arresting officer and also assured the possession of dangerous items that could aid an escape or pose a threat.
“However, it is crucial to note that the search should be limited to these specific objectives and should not be used as an opportunity for arbitrary or invasive searches unrelated to the arrest or immediate safety concerns. The Constitution recognises that a balance must be struck between the need for effective crime prevention and the protection of individual liberties.
During the search, both the police officer and the individual being searched should act in a respectful and non-abusive manner. It is important to avoid harassment, unnecessary force, and humiliation. The person being searched should not be subjected to degrading or inhuman treatment. These guidelines emphasise the importance of conducting searches with professionalism and respect for the rights and dignity of the individual being searched,” she said.
Also speaking with The Jury, another legal practitioner, Prince Adesanya Adebisi said, “In Nigeria, according to the Nigerian law guiding police activities, a male police officer is ordinarily prohibited from searching a female suspect, as the same is considered a violation of her person and dignity. Instead, a female police officer is required to conduct the search.
“Also, the Nigerian Police system has a gender policy that ensures that female officers are involved in the search and arrest of female suspects. However, it is important to note that this regulation may vary depending on the specific circumstance. For instance, if a female suspect was caught doing armed robbery operation; a male police officer can disarm her and search her to ensure she doesn’t have any arms with her. To every general rule, there is always an exception.”
Also speaking, a former chairman of NBA, Ikeja branch, Dave Ajetomobi, said, “Ordinarily, it is the female officers that should conduct searches on female individuals or suspects. For instance if a woman reports a case bordering on gender at the police establishment, they usually assign such cases to female officers as investigations police officers (IPO). It is abnormal and unlawful for a male officer to conduct a search on a female person or suspect. It is a breach of the right of such an individual to the dignity of her person as guaranteed by the constitution of Nigeria.”
Ineffective reform?
Despite the restraining legal provisions, issues of police brutality and use of force have remained prevalent in Nigeria especially against women who are usually degraded s3xually when at the mercy of law enforcement agents especially the police. A research finding stated that while appreciable attention has been given to police brutality against male citizens, female victims have been relatively ignored. The findings also indicate that they are subjected to a variety of physical, emotional and sexual violence, including torture, sexual assault and intimidation, denials of essential needs, and unwarranted punishments.
“The pervasion of violence and abuse by police officers on female detainees is one of the consequences of the perennial deficiencies of Nigeria police to carry out intelligence-based investigation. The increase in well-trained female personnel, gender-sensitive treatment of suspects and offenders, capacity building on intelligence-based investigation, effective human right awareness, regulation and proper monitoring of officers, enhancement of professionalism, adequate funding, and provision of logistics and equipment are suggested,” findings by Researchgate stated.
There are specific rules flouted regularly by the police; these provisions are; police cannot ask a woman unaccompanied by a male, to get down from her car after sunset unless a female police officer is present, police cannot arrest a woman at night (after 6 pm and before 6 am) unless it is an emergency, a woman can be arrested only by a female police officer (as far as possible), a male police officer cannot physically touch a woman (even if he has to arrest her in the absence of a female officer), only a female police officer can physically search a woman and has to maintain strict decency and a woman cannot be called to the police station for interrogation. Police have to go to her house, with a female officer (as far as possible).
There have been efforts to reform the police to reduce incidences of abuse. This is the reason the Nigeria Police Force (Establishment) Act, 2020 known as ‘the new act’ came into force on September 17, 2020 to repeal the Police Act of 2004 basically to provide an effective police service that is based on the principles of accountability and transparency, protection of human rights and partnership with other security agencies.
The Act did not only improve on the provisions of the erstwhile Act, it has its own novel provisions, including provisions made in accordance with international best practices and in tandem with some recent National Laws on Administration of Justice in Nigeria to blur out areas of seeming discrepancies between the old Police Act and other interrelated federal legislations.
It made provisions on arrest on civil matters wrong, unlike the previous Act which allowed police to meddle in and even become an instrument of torment or oppression in purely civil matters. It also made provisions for certain rights that accrue to a person who is arrested; the police officer making an arrest has a duty to inform the suspect of his rights to remain silent or avoid answering any question until after consultation with a legal practitioner or any other person of his own choice. While this notification of rights was often done discretionarily before now, the New Act has now made it mandatory.
It further made provisions that when a person is arrested and being detained, the police have a duty to inform the next of kin or any other relative of the suspect of the arrest, at no cost to the suspect.
It also prohibits the arrest of a person in place of a suspect; mandates that a person who is arrested must not be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; does not compel suspects to make a statement except he wishes to make one and requires that where a suspect who is arrested for an offence other than a capital offence is not released on bail within 24 hours, a court having jurisdiction with respect to the offence, may be notified by application on behalf of the suspect among other provisions.
As a Nigerian citizen, it is important to be aware of one’s rights during police searches and understand that by the provisions of the law every individual has the right to be treated with dignity and respect by law enforcement officers. The Nigerian Constitution guarantees the right to privacy, non-discrimination and the right to remain silent as well as the right to request witnesses during a search and receive a receipt for any seized property. Being informed and assertive helps the society to uphold the rule of law and respect the rights of all individuals, constitutional experts said.
ALSO READ: 2027: Atiku, Obi united by mutual desperation —APC
