LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-Alhaja Shakirat Ismail, a businesswoman from Gbagi Market, Ibadan, Oyo State, was illegally arrested and detained for 12 days by the Lagos Zonal Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
She was accused of taking a barren woman to a herbalist to help her conceive, a claim she vehemently denies.
Shakirat’s ordeal began on May 19, 2024, when NAPTIP officials, led by Mrs. Omolara, stormed her shop and arrested her without a warrant or prior invitation.
She was taken to the NAPTIP office in Lagos, where she was held incommunicado for 12 days without being charged or taken to court.
The Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) intervened and secured her release on May 31, 2024. However, the NAPTIP officials continued to harass her by collecting her original credentials and demanding a three-month bank statement from her surety.
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According to a statement by CHRSJ, the NAPTIP has turned its office situated at 165b, Oba Adejobi Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria, to Court of Law where they detained innocent citizens of Nigeria at will for weeks and months over frivolous and malicious allegations.
āThe rights body alleged that the business woman was kept incommunicado in the Lagos illegal and unlawful NAPTIP Office custody for Twelve (12) days without trial by not taking her to any Court of competent jurisdiction for proper adjudication as stipulated by the Section 35 sub-section (5) of the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
āThe information also has it that the NAPTIP officials were looking for way to collect something from the innocent business woman and that was why they got her arrested without any complaint to the matter in question and kept her in their illegal custody,ā it stated.
The statement which was signed by the chairman CHRSJ, Adeniyi Sulaiman notes that the group expected that the NAPTIP officials needed to follow due process of law as enshrined in the Section (33 to 46) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended by respecting the rights and dignity of the citizen, because according to them, no Nigerian or any agency of government is bigger than the apex law of the federation.
He said that the Nigeria citizen by birth as contained in the Section (25) of the said Constitution, has some certain privileges in their fatherland.
āThe NAPTIP officials just turned themselves to Court of Law by collecting original credentials from the family friend of the innocent business woman that stood as surety before the woman could be given administrative bail on Friday afternoon of 31st of May, 2024, adding that they also requested for three months bank statement of account of the surety with the money(bribe) for processing of tracking and verification exercise,ā he said.
He noted that CHRSJ had concluded arrangement to approach the Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan where they claimed the trump-up allegation were committed to seek redress for the innocent Ibadan business woman to demand for sum of one hundred million naira as compensation and public apology over unlawful and illegal detention in line with Section 35 subsection (6) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
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He also said the CHRSJ will approach the Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan to reclaim back all the original credentials of documents collected from the surety of the victim as contained in the Sworn Affidavit of Surety dated 31st day of May, 2024, before the Commissioner of Oath of the Lagos State High Court of Ikeja Judicial Division.
Sulaiman further disclosed that the group would soon write a strong worded Petition Letter to the Presidency, Director General of the Agency(NAPTIP), Head of nation’s security agencies, the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission(NHRC), Human Rights Watch(HRW), Transparency International(TI), Amnesty International (AI), international communities and host of other concerned authorities, for thorough, credible, and unbiased investigation into the false allegation leveled against the innocent Ibadan business woman on the subject matter.
He called on the Director General of NAPTIP, Professor Fatima Waziri-Azi, for immediate removal of the Lagos Zonal Commander of the Agency(NAPTIP), Mrs. Comfort Agboko without further delay and outright dismissal of its official, Mrs. Omolara who led the arrest, iin order to serve as deterrent to other officials of the agency(NAPTIP).
He alleged that some officials, including; Omolara+2348122019117 of Lagos Zonal Command of NAPTIP, working the Federal Government agency had sat down somewhere to destroy the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with their unprofessional conduct in order to give the Tinubu led Federal Government a bad name.