CEASE AND DESIST! STOP HARASSMENT OF WOMEN IN NIGERIA

CEASE AND DESIST! STOP HARASSMENT OF WOMEN IN NIGERIA

30 April 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

We the undersigned Women’s Organizations, Activists, Scholars, Civil Society and Human Rights
Organisations in Nigeria, strongly condemn the recent raids, public humiliation, assault and sexual
harassment and of over 100 women in Abuja by the agents of the Federal Capital Territory
Administration (FCTA) Joint Task Team, which is comprised of the Department of Development
Control, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Social Development Secretariat
(SDS). These agents raided the “Caramelo night club” and other clubs on two different occasions
within one week in Abuja (17 th and 26 th April). During the raids, they arrested several women, who
reported that they had been sexually assaulted and sexually harassed, some who were raped. The
assaults left injuries in the vaginas of some of the arrested women and many were psychologically
traumatised by the experience.
It appears that the FCTA joint task team had unilaterally, and without respect for human rights,
chose to contain any “environmental nuisance” the night club allegedly was causing to target and
attack young women in the club, particularly dancers and strippers. The agents appeared to be
specifically targeting women – while no male guests were arrested or harassed. In fact, several
female guests in and around the night club were also targeted and harassed. Women were brutally
dragged out by male officers who beat them, and some women were stripped naked. The violence
inflicted on these women was vicious and targeted. They suffered this treatment because they were
women and these officers were confident that they can get away with it.
We were further shocked by the reports that a mobile court at the old parade ground in Area 10,
Abuja on the afternoon of 29 th April 2019, convicted many of these women in unfair trials and some
of them were sentenced to prison or fined for an offence that is unknown to law.
Nigeria is signatory to many international and regional human rights treaties including the
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); and the
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa
(Maputo Protocol), which protects the human rights of women to dignity, equality, liberty and
freedom from violence. The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act applicable in the FCT also
prohibits all forms of violence against all persons irrespective of gender, and regardless of whether it
was committed in private or in public, while stipulating punishments for offenders and remedies for
victims. The 1999 Nigerian Constitution equally provides for fundamental human rights including the
rights to dignity (section 34); right to fair hearing (section 36), and right to freedom from
discrimination (section 42).
In October 2017, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in the Dorothy Njemanze & 3 Ors v. the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, pronounced that the act of targeting women and harassing them by the
Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and other state security agents constituted gender
based discriminatory treatment, torture, cruel inhuman and degrading treatment. The Court also
recognised that Nigeria has a duty to investigate, discipline and prosecute persons responsible for
violating these human rights therefore, the failure or refusal to do so in the cases reported to it
amounted to a further violation of the State’s international obligations.
These raids by the FCT Joint Task Force are in contravention of the laws and treaties which Nigeria is
bound to uphold. We therefore demand, that the federal authorities particularly the Police and the

FCT Minister, investigate all the allegations of abuse, ill-treatment and violence including rape and
other forms of sexual assaults, to which these women were subjected, and where the agents are
found culpable, they must be brought to justice before a competent court that meet international
human rights standards without delay. The government should also provide psychosocial support
and compensation for the victims.
We call on the government to account for the wellbeing and bodily integrity of all the women for the
period they have been held in detention by the state.
We call on the government to release the women immediately and unconditionally from this
unlawful and discriminatory detention and from the proposed “forced” three months arbitrary
rehabilitation at the FCT rehabilitation centre in Lugbe, Abuja, which would further violate these
women’s rights to equality, dignity and liberty.
The continued harassment of women by the FCT joint task force should stop immediately as it
constitutes gender discrimination, a violation of human rights, is unlawful, unconstitutional and
carried out with total disregard for the rule of law.
The undersigned will not hesitate to take legal actions to challenge the constitutionality of the raids,
targeted against women, if the state does not take immediate action to stop these harassments.
The undersigned:
1. ACTS Generation
2. Adaobi Egboka
3. African Women Empowerment and Childcare Initiative (AWECI)
4. African Women’s Initiative
5. Alliances for Africa
6. Amnesty International Nigeria
7. Arise Nigerian Woman Foundation
8. Betty Abah
9. Bridget Osakwe
10. CedarSeed Foundation
11. CEE-HOPE Nigeria
12. Centre for Nonviolence and Gender Advocacy in Nigeria
13. Change Managers International Network
14. Chidi Odinkalu
15. CISLAC
16. CLEEN Foundation
17. Country Associates Network (CANET)
18. Deaf Women Aloud Initiative
19. Deaf Women Association of Nigeria Abuja Nigeria
20. Devatop Centre For AFRICA Development
21. Development in Practice Gender and Entrepreneurial Initiative (DIPGEI)
22. Dorothy Njemanze
23. Dorothy Njemanze Foundation
24. Echoes of Women in Africa Initiatives (ECOWA)
25. Education as a Vaccine
26. Equity Advocates
27. FAME Foundation
28. FIDA Nigeria

29. Gender Advocacy for Justice Initiative
30. Gender and Environmental Risk Reduction Initiative (GERI)
31. Girl Child Africa
32. Girls’ Power Initiative
33. Haly Hope Foundation
34. HEIR Women Development
35. Ier Jonathan-Ichaver
36. Jenny Chisom
37. Josephine Effah Chukwuma
38. Juliana Itohan Oyegun
39. Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP)
40. Lillian Okenwa
41. Martin Obono
42. Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
43. Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN)
44. Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF)
45. Olobiri Foundation
46. Ovie Brume Foundation
47. Partners West Africa Nigeria
48. Partnership for Justice
49. Peyi Soyinka-Airewele
50. Politishean
51. Project Alert on Violence Against Women
52. Sesor Empowerment Foundation
53. Society of Media in Public Health
54. Spaces for Change
55. State of the Union Coalition (SOTU)
56. Transparency International Nigeria
57. Vision Spring Initiatives
58. Widows Development Organisation
59. Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC)
60. Women Aid Collective (WACOL)
61. Women Environmental Programme
62. Women for Peace and Gender Equality Initiative
63. Women Foundation Nigeria
64. Women In Politics Forum (WIPF)
65. Women Information Network (WINET)
66. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Nigeria
67. Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA)
68. Women’s Rights and Health Project
69. Youth Hub Africa
70. Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC)