Former Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, has expressed displeasure over the arrest and prosecution of a woman, Hamdiya Sidi, in Sokoto, by the police for lamenting incessant killings by bandits.
Ndume who represents Borno South Senatorial District, also backed a similar position taken by a Northern Coalition called Voices for Inclusion and Equity (VIEW) which had condemned Sidi’s arrest.
Senator Ndume noted that Sidi’s lamentation on the incidents was a way of drawing attention to the killings by bandits.
He said there shouldn’t be any attempt to silence her through arrest.
In a statement last Friday, spokesman of the Sokoto Police Command, Ahmad Rufai, said Sidi was arrested and being prosecuted for inciting unrest in the state.
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The woman had in a video lamented the insecurity in the state and demanded an end to the incessant killings by bandits.
She revealed how gunmen took over villages without any restraint, adding that displaced women seeking refuge in the state capital were being sexually exploited due to abject poverty and squalor.
Condemning the woman’s arrest earlier, the Northern Coalition in a statement jointly signed by Asma’u Joda, Saudatu Mahdi, Maryam Uwais, Aisha Oyebode, Amina Salihu, Mairo Mandara, Kadaria Ahmed, Fatima Akilu, Rabi Jimeta and Aisha Waziri Ibrahim, urged Governor Aliyu Ahmed to publicly kick against the treatment accorded “this courageous young lady, in recognition of his responsibility and leadership role to protect his citizens.”
The statement reads: “We expect him (Sokoto governor) to support her and also listen to her pleas for support, with a view to addressing them. His public denouncement would send a message that the state values the lives and safety of its women. Ignoring her pleas for her community, and indeed, the state at large only deepens the wounds that violence has already inflicted on Northern Nigeria’s social fabric.
“In any just society, a woman has the right to speak out against the conditions that threaten her life and dignity. Northern women deserve this right to speak out, without fear of violence or retribution. Their demands should flow naturally as a right, not a privilege. This is not just about one woman’s freedom but about the rights of all Northern women who refuse to be silenced in the face of brutality…”