As shared by Human Rights Lawyer, Dr Ayo Sogunro.

So, about last weekend’s events.

I had come to Abuja to facilitate a human rights meeting with several NGOs and my accommodation was also booked at the hotel where the meeting would be taking place. 🧵

Soon as I landed, I sent messages to my friends in Abuja confirming that I was around.

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.

For now.

One of them promised to stop by on her way home from work, also in the area.

Of the people I texted, she was the first to get to my place. I had checked into the hotel around 6.20pm and she got there around 6.40pm. Barely 15 minutes later, three police officers came to my door.

When the police arrived at my door, they asked to be let inside.

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

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.

This argument went back and forth for a while; one officer even started recording it on his phone. Some other police officers were called in as backup (making them about 6 total). A few of my other friends also arrived. Hotel management came in. It was becoming quite the scene.

Eventually, the officers got fed up with my refusal to voluntarily accompany them and then said they were putting me under arrest - still 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.

Up to this point, I still had my phone on me. I wasn’t touched or cuffed or assaulted by the officers. Our interaction throughout was verbal only. I was able to use my phone to make calls and alert people about what was unfolding.

But because I was still confused by what was going on - and the officers were not telling me who had sent them, how they discovered my room, or why I had been targeted (and also to forestall the worst) I sent out a series of tweets to alert the wider public.

But the police officers did not appreciate me putting the tweets out. At the station, they asked me to turn off my phone and hand it over. I did.

They asked me to write a statement - still with no context as to the charges - and I declined to do so without my lawyer present.

After a while behind the counter, they called me for an interview with the DPO. I was still quite upset at this disruption of my day - and all this started barely one hour after I had landed in Nigeria and entered Abuja.

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.

I then asked her that, well if that’s the case, where’s their evidence that any offence had been committed.

She said she was not obliged to give me any evidence and I should simply state my case and explain myself to her. Lol.

She suggested that I was enticing my friend - against the Penal Code. I lol. My friend and I went back 15 years from Law School. It was normal in my world that people (regardless of sex, gender or marital status) visited me where I reside in Nigeria, and these were always hotels.

I then went into a long rant with the DPO about the need for proper police procedure, the need to respect constitutional rights, and the need to safeguard women’s rights and autonomy.

Eventually, she got fed up with my sermon and asked them to book me and take me to the cells.The issue then appeared to seem that, because I was continuing to be ‘rowdy’ and kept trying to demonstrate a clear understanding of law and police procedure, all the police officers had been offended.

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

The rest of the story is about the practical aspects of that lesson in respecting police officers.

By the next day, I realised that 'cooling down' was the way forward if I was still interested in leaving their station and conducting the event that had brought me to Abuja.

As they would not release me without a statement and a surety - I wrote a statement on the advice of my lawyer and a good friend stood surety for me.

I can’t say how this case started or how my room was identified. I still have questions myself. I don’t know whether or not there was a political element. However, I received solidarity visits from folks in both APC and PDP (as well as representatives from the NBA and the NHRC).

The night behind bars was philosophical. Later, I was more amused than angry. The idea of coming to do a human rights event in Nigeria only to end up in a cell was a hilarious and tragic testament to the Nigerian condition.

Btw, I had great cellmates - but that’s another story.

By the time I was released Saturday, I was on good terms with all the duty officers and even with the arresting officers.

My people even advised me to mend fences with the DPO and I went back into her offices to apologise for being an ‘unruly’ activist. Not sure if that worked.

Anyway, if you ask me why I am a feminist ally, it is because of issues like this: that we live in a country where a married woman cannot merely visit a male friend alone without both of them risking arrest and detention under gendered laws and their arbitrary application.

If you ask me why I am a believer in liberal democracy, it is because we cannot have a conservative country where the police are saddled with policing morality rather than protecting citizens from actual crimes. Because under such laws, everyone is a target.

If you ask me why I fight for human rights, it is because human rights are the only safeguard against the misuse of power. Otherwise, laws can be weaponised and become the arbitrary tools of those with some power against those without it.

Although the whole incident is behind me, I still feel there are systemic issues in the policing process that need to be addressed.

Otherwise, the less-privileged Nigerian may not be as fortunate as I have been in standing up for myself and navigating the system.

Grateful again for the show of support online and offline. I have never doubted the power of social media in bringing about social change in Nigeria, and last weekend’s events and the overwhelming solidarity from my online community was another testimony to this. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

https://twitter.com/ayosogunro/status/1671556418938208261

Thou shall not coveret thy neighbours property under thy own roof. Your friend of 15years in law kee u

slawomir:
Damnnn niggar

So hotel room nor be same accommodation and shelter like our normal house?

Someone once opened a thread here asking if adultery is illegal. But sir this your story get k-legs o

All this your grammar .. you wan go ride person wife .. based on say .. you don Dey collect for long ..

You too lucky say the man too formal.. no be traditional Alhaji dem..

By now na your dead body and pictures we for the see..

You Dey go form Woke for Islamic enclave .. and still never learn your lesson

Wish you the best till we see your rip..

Person wife go Dey worry una ..

Of all places na your hotel room .. your married friend Dey visit you.. hotel lobby and all no do una .. na room.

Next !

Some people are just careless with their lives

Ok

Damnnn niggar

See all the comments above just show say we still dey live archaic and primitive life style for this part of the world.
Our mentality and reasoning is gone

So hotel room nor be same accommodation and shelter like our normal house?
So una just condition una mind say na only bad things dey happen for hotel
Wow even some educated nairaland are supporting the police...I dey shame for all of una
Light up my weed with anger while I walk of this thread

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.

We learn everyday.......in Nigeria 🇳🇬

Watin Musa eye no go see on here

you go follow naija police drag law and procedureee?

shooo!

Reality201:
Someone once opened a thread here asking if adultery is illegal

Dat one mad ooo

Nigerian police will never disappoint.

Omo see English on top say person wan commit adultery. This guy is a joker, so he couldn't meet her in the lobby of the hotel or anywhere else where people are but his room to share drink and discuss. He thinks we are fools. Just imagine ur wife tells u she wants to go and have a meeting or see her male friend in an hotel room, like what sort of nonsense is that.

Lolz.. police wey baba say e leave better than he met.

Bt bros why invited married woman into a hotel room n not receieved her at Bar or reception?
Obviously na her Hub run u street.. no be today she dey visit hotels. U Jus a victim of circumstance of her waka, time wey her man vowed to deal with men luring her, u go enter. WAHALA! WAHALA!! WAHALA!!!

Hmmm. Baba, I am sorry but having a married woman in yhur hotel room alone with yhu doesn't sound morally right to me.

It appears someone must have snitched on yhu which could only mean one thing: yhu have been known to always have the married woman over with yhu in yhur hotel room.

Of all places, why must it be inside yhur hotel room? What happens to an open space around or within the hotel?

Abi yhu be human activist by day and clitovist at night?

I know naija police can over do but baba, yhur way no just seem pure with that married woman abeg.

How will yhu feel if yhur wife goes to see a so called male friend in his hotel room? I Know yhur type will jump to yhur defense here but the koko be say yhu no dey morally pure.

What the police did is bad. Totally bad. But you sef no try. We should always learn to keep space.

Your married female friend in the same room as yours. Haba. If you want to see her that bad,go meet her downstairs or meet in an open restaurant or something. A sensible woman won't even follow you to the hotel itself not to talk of the same room

P.S. I am talking on moral grounds here sha. What the officers did is condemnable and nonesensical

Police is your friend indeed

Police is your friend indeed
Hope you didn't do it?

OGA you knack or you no nack


Men clothes

The husband obviously sent them. Why not hotel bar tho 🤣

atobs4real:
Police is your friend indeed
Hope you didn't do it?

Him no talk say him do anything ooo

Islam . I can bet anything that those police officers and the DPO know senior Muslim colleagues, clerics and politicians in the same city who are busy smashing both single women and wives of 'ordinary' men in the city and won't say pim but they will stand at attention immediately they see someone they believe they can flex power on without any major consequences.

God help you all with your hypocrisy and double standards.

I wonder what happened to the woman sha. Na woman dey put man for wahala since Eden days

Na wa o

Man wife inside hotel room

Lol when you're in Rome just act like a Romanian every region with him own Law....

E no clear

Hotel have lobbies for this reason .
See ehn,I always tell all my guys,learn to open your mind to the possibility of your wife cheating on you atleast once throughout the course of your marriage,if you ever intend to marry.
I've been opportune to role with some women in friendly gatherings and the things they say when they're with some of us they're comfortable with will shock you.
Put yourself first and don't make some insane sacrifices for anybody, neither should you trust all out like a naive person,including your WIFE!!!
Some men today with HIV got it from their wives,but because of their philandering ,they always think it came from them.
Women hardly cheat with condoms,they're always easy to tell you raw or some bs condom irritation story.
I always tell the girl I'm dating that if I should ever catch anything from her in the name of cheating,I'd put a 45 to her head and squeeze the trigger and anyone who tries to come to her defense will meet the same fate.
Sleep around all you want,I no send you,no just give me disease.
Ignorance is the only reason why many people are still married today,if them open their eyes,them go run.