A coalition of women groups has expressed concerns that the alleged recent unlawful assault and human rights abuse of a young police office orderly, Inspector Teju Moses, “underscores the existing inhuman conditions of service which many Nigerian employees are subjected to by their employers.”
Zainab Duke-Abiola, a professor and human rights activist, was recently arrested over an alleged assault on Teju Moses, a police inspector assigned to protect her.
The Coalition consists of Women Aid Collective (WACOL) in collaboration with ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) among others.
The founding director, WACOL and also Tamar Sexual Assault and Referral Centre, Prof Ngozi Ezeilo, at a media briefing in Abuja on Friday, said the fall-out of the instant case “calls to mind the need to review the legal and administrative parameters under which the Force personnel, particularly the female gender among them, are deployed to VIPs.”
She said the alleged criminal act by Prof Zainab “is without equivocation condemnable in its entirety and would be condemned by all civil society organisations and others that a serving officer should be assaulted and brutalised by a fellow female citizen of the country who she is assigned for Police station.”
“The Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP) 2015 and the various corresponding state VAPP laws provide against any form of violence against human persons,” she said.
