TheCable

Ayo Sogunro, human rights lawyer, has narrated how the police invaded his hotel room in Abuja to arrest him for having a married woman in his company.

In a series of tweets, Sogunro said he travelled to Nigeria to facilitate a human rights meeting with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on Friday and was booked in a hotel in Abuja where the meeting would take place.

He said on arrival, he sent messages to his friends in Abuja informing them of his presence and that one of them, a female friend, was his first visitor at the hotel.

“As always, whenever I am in Nigeria, my friends would come welcome me at my accommodation, share a drink or two and generally gist. This time was no different,” he said.

Sogunro said shortly after she got there, the police arrived at his hotel room and demanded to be let in.

“I denied them entrance and told them they had no authority to enter a private space without a warrant or a clear just cause. Instead, they just pushed me aside and made their way in,” he said.

“On seeing my friend, they asked her to come with them. We both asked why. The police replied that because my friend was a married woman, she should not have been in the hotel with me. I said this was ridiculous. She was a citizen of Nigeria and had a right to meet with anyone.

“The officers insisted that she must come with them and so must I. For ‘questioning’.

“I said, NO WAY. ON WHAT GROUNDS??? If they wanted to arrest me, I would comply. But I would not voluntarily follow them to answer questions on unclear and unstated allegations.”

He said the argument took too long and the officers got tired of his refusal to voluntarily accompany them to the station.

He said he was arrested with no clear allegation or reason.

“My friend and I then followed them out of the hotel where a van was waiting and they took us to the station,” Sogunro said.

He noted that he was confused by what was going on–who sent the officers, how they discovered his room, or why he had been targeted.

‘PENAL CODE IN ABUJA’

“After a while behind the counter, they called me for an interview with the DPO,” he said.

“I told the DPO everything they did wrong: the process of arrest before investigation; using the police to settle what was now seeming to be a marital issue not involving me; barging into a hotel room without a warrant; and taking me into custody without a clear charge.

“The DPO countered that (as we were in Northern Nigeria under the Penal Code), it was highly suspicious for a married woman to be visiting me and the police were within rights to have intervened and enter my hotel room without all that process.”

He said he was booked and taken to a cell where he spent the night.

“Taking me into custody for the night was presumably to ‘teach me a lesson’.”

He added that he was released on Saturday after writing a statement and providing a surety for his release.

When contacted, Josephine Adeh, FCT police spokesperson, said: “We did not arrest anybody”.

Efforts to contact Muyiwa Adejobi, force spokesperson, were unsuccessful as his number was not reachable.