The Nation Newspaper

Tag: harassment

  • Octogenarian cries out over harassment, intimation

    Octogenarian cries out over harassment, intimation

    An octogenarian, Madam Sherifat Abass, has cried out that she is being harassed and intimidated by alleged landgrabbers intent on taking over her land.

    Abass, who is the only surviving member of the Ashabi Abass descendants of Ojuoto Village, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos State, accused four persons of taking possession of the Ashabi Abass’ 8.058 hectares of land.

    The octogenarian alleged that the intimidation has become an unending one despite a court judgment preventing the said persons from entering, destroying, stationing thugs, reconstructing, constructing any structure whatsoever on land.

    Madam Abass also said the court had ruled that the land belongs to the female members of the Abass Andu Family of Ojuoto Village.

    Read Also: Tinubu approves routing of 20% palliatives through religious, traditional leaders

    She said: “We had instituted a case between the descendants of Ashabi Abass and these four persons at the State High Court in Ikoyi. The case was presided over by Justice R.O Olukolu who granted our prayers in 2023.

    “Justice Olukolu, in his January 15, 2023 judgment, ordered the defendants/respondents, their servants, agents, privies and anybody acting based on their instructions from entering, destroying, stationing thugs, reconstructing, constructing any structure whatsoever on the expanse of land adjudged to belong to the female members of the Abass Andu Family of Ojucto Village, (Ibeju Lekki, Lagos). 

    “But, after the judgment, these people returned to the site to take possession of our land, using thugs.”

    Madam Abass’s lawyer, Akin Oladeji of Akinjide and co, said he wrote letters to the Lagos State Police Command and Inspector General of Police (IG) on the matter.

    “Complaints have been made to the Police Service Commission (PSC) which was forwarded to FCID Area 10 Garki for action all to no avail. The land grabbers claimed the land was sold to them but they have not produced any title documents to the land, nor a purchase receipt. They don’t have a survey plan or any agreement with the first defendant’s family. No other member of the first defendant’s family has come out to support them since they started resisting us last year.

    “A particular policeman is conniving with them. He has refused to prevail on them to produce their title documents. The policeman also signed the charges that were dismissed by the Ogba Magistrate Court. And so, I objected when this petition was assigned to him for investigation,” Oladeji stressed.

    Oladeji further alleged that on April 5, 2024, Assistant Commissioner of Police Yemisi Ojo, the Area Commander, Area J Command, sent policemen to drive the workers from the land and arrested four of the guards.

    “But two days after the arrest, hoodlums descended on the land with a tractor and pulled down most of the fences on it. The land grabbers came with police officers from Abuja to arrest Madam Abass on April 18, and when they did not succeed, they tied to arrest her son, Hakeem Amele, who is an officer of the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps (LNSC). They failed but, in the process, brutalised him, tore his uniform and shattered his phone. Mama Abass is over 80-years-old and she may not come back alive if they take her to Abuja,” he added.

    But spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, said: ‘Our involvement is to ensure law and order. We are not interested in lands, it’s a civil matter.”

  • Women Affairs Minister: I was sexual harassment victim

    Women Affairs Minister: I was sexual harassment victim

    • Govt to draft DSS operatives to probe UNICAL lecturer
    • VC condemns alleged assault, calls for investigation

    Women Affairs Minister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye has said she was once a victim of sexual harassment in her university days.

    The minister said her lecturer on Constitutional Law, who she accused of harbouring an ulterior motive, almost made her miss going to the Law School.

    She said the lecturer ensured that she failed several times because she refused to play into his hands.

    Kennedy-Ohanenye said this while addressing reporters and leaders of Nigerian universities on sexual harassment in tertiary institutions yesterday in Abuja.

    Also, the minister said her ministry was examining a plan that would ensure they form cooperatives for many aspects of production.

    She said: “So, there are ways these things are investigated. It was one of the reasons I stood firmly on the Calabar case and asked for justice. That was all I asked for. I can’t support anyone because I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there. All I asked is let a thorough investigation be carried out.

    “On the University of Calabar case, I made those calls personally. If a child can come out and carry placards on the streets, is it to speak to a mother like me that will be a problem? Now, all I asked for was justice to be done.

    Read Also: Free education: Soludo suspends four principals over non-compliance

    “We all went to the university and we know how some students go for more marks and some lectures victimise students.

    “I was also a victim while in the university. I also wrote a letter for a particular course on constitutional law for my paper to be remarked because a lecturer had been failing me and asking me to pay for a place and invite him to come.

    “I wrote a letter after others left for Law School without me. I wrote a letter and requested for a remark of my paper in another school and refused to compromise to him.

    “When a panel was set up and my paper was brought, they realised he wrote 80 per cent but pasted fail on the list.

    “So, for the Uni-Calabar case, I spoke with the students, the vice chancellor and the professor asked us to write him a letter. Now, we are getting more people involved, including the DSS, for investigations to be carried out because there are talks that show that there is more going on besides sexual harassment. Without investigations, we won’t know and we would not allow emotions to be involved to ensure we get justice.”

    Also, UNICAL Vice Chancellor, Prof. Florence Obi, has condemned an alleged assault on students of the institution by a suspected lecturer.

    Obi was reacting in a statement yesterday in Calabar to a video clip that surfaced online on Sunday night of a suspected UNICAL lecturer beating up a group of students at the entrance to a classroom with a belt.

    Quoting reports, the VC said the students were those of the Department of Microbiology in the Faculty of Biological Sciences waiting for their practicals before the incident occurred.

    “Although I am currently on an official function outside the state, my attention has been drawn to the said clip.

    “The Acting VC, Prof. Angela Oyo-Ita; the Director of ServiCom, Prof. Patrick Egaga; the Dean of Students Affairs, Dr. Tony Enyang; and the Acting Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the institution, Capt. Austine Bisong (retd.) are already handling it.

    “The incident is unprofessional and against the university’s rules of engagement,” she said.

  • Council denies group’s claim of harassment at park

    A group has accused the Apapa-Iganmu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of using touts to attack its officers, who are members of Ifesowapo Trailer Park at Whites and Orile.

    But the council denied the allegation, promising to check through its records to set things straight.

    At a briefing in Somolu yesterday, the Human Rights Monitoring Agenda (HURMA) accused the council of imposing an “illegal daily N2,000 fees” on its members for loading and offloading after paying the “N100,000 yearly fee for parking space in the trailer owners’ compound.”

    HURMA’s Executive Director Isak Buna described this as double taxation.

    Buna said: “Our unit at Apapa-Iganmu LCDA constitutes more of trailer owners, who are law-abiding citizens. These truck owners, after going about their legitimate businesses at Apapa port, come back to park their vehicles on their legitimately acquired land. But suddenly, the management of Apapa-Iganmu LCDA began an imposition of unnecessary ticket tagged “loading and offloading” on every vehicle going in and out of their compound.

    “Efforts to explain to the LCDA that such charges should never occur since they pay for same loading and offloading at Apapa port where the real activities take place fell on deaf cars. This imposition continues with regular harassment by hoodlums working for the LCDA. They work day and night. Besides the daily imposition of loading and offloading fees, the truck owners are made to pay N100,000 yearly fee for parking space in their compound.”

    The group said following the intervention of the House of Assembly Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Chairman Rotimi Olowo, the council withdrew its men from the trailer owners’ compound on Wednesday.

    Buna said the council men returned the next day, adding: “It is disheartening to observe that the LCDA till now remains adamant, despite the directives of the Assembly. It is still our expectation that the Chairman of Apapa-Iganmu LCDA, Mrs Funmilayo Akande-Muhammed, will respect the directives and peaceful resolution of the House of Assembly.

    “Much as we want to be law-abiding, we should not be pushed to the wall. Mrs Akande-Muhammed should stop terrorising our people, or else we’ll strike back…”

    Mrs Akande-Muhammed described the allegations as “lies.”

    The land, she said, did not belong to the group.

    “The land is owned by the Ojora Family. They gave it out to use as park. That is why it is named Bola Ahmed Tinubu Park. The local government is the one managing it. The Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs called us on the issue and we explained our side of the story. They did not find our action as illegal,” she said.

  • Council denies group’s claim of harassment at park

    A group has accused the Apapa-Iganmu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of using touts to attack its officers, who are members of Ifesowapo Trailer Park at Whites and Orile.

    But the council denied the allegation, promising to check through its records to set things straight.

    At a briefing in Somolu yesterday, the Human Rights Monitoring Agenda (HURMA) accused the council of imposing an “illegal daily N2,000 fees” on its members for loading and offloading after paying the “N100,000 yearly fee for parking space in the trailer owners’ compound.”

    HURMA’s Executive Director Isak Buna described this as double taxation.

    Buna said: “Our unit at Apapa-Iganmu LCDA constitutes more of trailer owners, who are law-abiding citizens. These truck owners, after going about their legitimate businesses at Apapa port, come back to park their vehicles on their legitimately acquired land. But suddenly, the management of Apapa-Iganmu LCDA began an imposition of unnecessary ticket tagged “loading and offloading” on every vehicle going in and out of their compound.

    “Efforts to explain to the LCDA that such charges should never occur since they pay for same loading and offloading at Apapa port where the real activities take place fell on deaf cars. This imposition continues with regular harassment by hoodlums working for the LCDA. They work day and night. Besides the daily imposition of loading and offloading fees, the truck owners are made to pay N100,000 yearly fee for parking space in their compound.”

    The group said following the intervention of the House of Assembly Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Chairman Rotimi Olowo, the council withdrew its men from the trailer owners’ compound on Wednesday.

    Buna said the council men returned the next day, adding: “It is disheartening to observe that the LCDA till now remains adamant, despite the directives of the Assembly. It is still our expectation that the Chairman of Apapa-Iganmu LCDA, Mrs Funmilayo Akande-Muhammed, will respect the directives and peaceful resolution of the House of Assembly.

    “Much as we want to be law-abiding, we should not be pushed to the wall. Mrs Akande-Muhammed should stop terrorising our people, or else we’ll strike back…”

    Mrs Akande-Muhammed described the allegations as “lies.”

    The land, she said, did not belong to the group.

    “The land is owned by the Ojora Family. They gave it out to use as park. That is why it is named Bola Ahmed Tinubu Park. The local government is the one managing it. The Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs called us on the issue and we explained our side of the story. They did not find our action as illegal,” she said.

  • Residents protest invasion, harassment by land grabbers

    Residents of Millennium Citi Centre Estate (MCCE), Gbagada, Lagos, yesterday protested harassment by suspected land grabbers.

    Chanting solidarity songs, the protesters stood outside the entrance of the estate from 7am, carrying placards with the inscription: ”We are law-abiding citizens, land grabbers leave us alone.”

    They accused land grabbers, popularly called omo onile, of unlawful invasion and instigating illegal arrest of private security personnel employed by the residents’ community development association.

    The demonstrators faulted the arrest of a security supervisor, Mr. Iyeke Williams and Jide Babalola, a barber in the estate and their subsequent parade by the police on national television.

    The chairman of the residents’ association, Mr. Soji Adeniji, said a faction of another family, having been politely prevented from forcibly entering the estate by security team, connived with the police to arrest and brutalise Williams and Babalola.

    He said: ”As the drama was unfolding, I was out of Lagos but I was receiving updates via telephone calls and on our estate’s social media platforms. The arrested victims were ordered by the police to lead them to my house. Since I was out of town, they forced themselves into my home and conducted a search without any warrant. My family was gripped with fear.

    “Throughout last week, the same team repeatedly came to my home at odd hours to ransack the place in search of me, with the intention to abduct and humiliate me over trumped up charges.”

    Adeniji appealed to the police authority to caution its operatives against being used by land grabbers to carry out illegal arrest.

    ”We have different omo onile (land grabbers) and all of them have militias that invade the estate and engage one another in supremacy battle. We do not want to be in the middle of this tug of war. They all have law suits against /among them that are yet to be decided by the courts and despite that they resort to self-help to claim ownership. Some residents of MCCE have even had to make payments to at least two of these families, to prevent disturbances.

    ”We call on the Inspector-General of Police to intervene, direct the release of the persons being illegally detained since September 13 and instruct officers and men of the Nigeria Police to stop lending themselves to being used for brazen illegality.”

    A representative of the original land owner, Antonio Delfino Da Meranda Family, Pastor Kolawole Shotayo, said his family sold the land to residents, adding that some persons who filed a suit against the family had resorted to self-help, instead of waiting for the outcome of the suit.

    ”I represent the owner of the land where the estate is situated, Delfino Da Meranda Family. We sold all the land in the area between 2002 and 2014.

    ”However, in 2010, members of a family that has nothing to do with our land filed a suit against us at a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, presided over by Justice Olayinka. The suit is due for hearing again on November 7.

    ”If the family in question wants to do anything in the estate, they are supposed to file an interlocutory injunction. But instead of doing that they are carrying out illegal arrests.”

  • Kogi senators, Reps allege harassment by Bello

    EIGHT federal lawmakers from Kogi State at the National Assembly yesterday alleged harassment and intimidation by Governor Yahaya Bello against them and their constituents.

    The federal lawmakers, in a joint statement, claimed that Bello had allegedly continued to “terrorise and intimidate” them.

    They urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call the governor to order in the interest of survival of democracy in the state and the country.

    The statement was signed by Senators Dino Melaye (Kogi West), Ahmed Ogembe (Kogi Central), Atai Aidoko (Kogi East) and five of the nine members of the House of Representatives.

    They chronicled alleged acts of “terrorism and intimidation”, which they claimed the governor unleashed on them and their supporters in the last one year.

    According to them, the latest of such actions was the prevention of Senator Ogembe from entering Okene last Saturday by suspected thugs.

    The same thugs were said to have chased away the senator from his constituency in March this year during an empowerment programme for his constituents in Okene

    The statement said: “This cry has become imperative because persons holding contrary or alternative political views with Governor Bello can no longer move freely within the state, neither can they hold political meetings or conduct political activities such as town hall meetings, constituency empowerment programmes without violent interruptions by the state government and its agents.

    “The governor has muzzled the state legislators, flagrantly disobeyed the judicial pronouncements of the courts and acting as Lord unto himself and no one else can challenge him in any manner whatsoever despite our constitutional democracy and its well-entrenched time-tested principles of checks and balances.

    “If as legislators, we are prevented from constituency visits, and our empowerment programmes are violently disrupted by the governor, and his agents, one wonders how it would be possible for elections to hold without violence in 2019.

    “Enough is enough. We hereby call on Mr. President to instruct the police and other security agencies to be neutral politically and call the governor to order.”

    The aggrieved lawmakers also called on the international community to take note of the happenings in Kogi State in the country’s interest.

    Others who endorsed the statement included: Karim Sunday, Yusuf Ayo Tajudeen, Egwu Emmanuel, Benjamin Okolo and Omale Hassan Atayoma.

     

     

     

  • PDP Women Leader petitions police over ‘harassment’

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Women Leader in Ilupeju Ward 2, Oye Local Government , Mrs. Felicia Arise, yesterday alleged threat to her life by some loyalists of Governor Ayo Fayose.

    Mrs. Arise, in a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Chafe, claimed that her life was being threatened for her refusal to support Fayose’s preferred candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola.

    In the petition, Mrs. Arise said she was being victimised for supporting former Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye.

    According to the petition  by her lawyer, Mr. Sule Longe, Mrs. Arise said she had not committed any offence to warrant being punished.

    She  said the governor’s loyalists also pronounced her removal as the ward’s women leader, saying the purported action is illegal, unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect whatsoever.

     

  • Family accuses police of harassment

    Family accuses police of harassment

    •It’s all lies, says FCID

    A family has alleged that it is being harassed by some operatives of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) at Alagbon, Lagos.

    But the police denied the allegation, saying the Oshinmorin family was ”crying wolf where there is none”.

    The family accused an investigating police officer (IPO) of supporting some opponents to oppress its members despite the pendency of its fundamental rights enforcement suit at the Epe High Court.

    In a letter by its lawyer, the family claimed that the IPO detained its members for one week and only released them when one of them was dying. It said despite the FCID being served with the court processes, the IPO has continued to harass, intimidate and threaten “members of the Oshinmorin family”.

    The family said the issue between it and its opponent was civil, alleging that the IPO has been doing everything to criminalise the matter. It called on the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) at Alagbon to call the IPO to order and allow the court to handle the matter.

    Denying the allegation, a senior police officer,  who pleaded not to be named,  said : “the truth is that there is a complaint against them. We only asked them to show up and explain themselves. I am not aware of any fundamental rights suits”.

     

  • Shi’ites sue El-Rufai for ‘harassment, molestation’

    The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shi’ites, has sued Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai at the Federal High Court in Kaduna for ‘incessant harassments, molestation and open violent physical attacks’ on its members.

    The suit was filed by Engr. Yahaya Gilima Karofi, Muktar Abdullahi Muhammed and Aliyu Umar, against the government of Kaduna State; Governor of Kaduna State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Commissioner of Police; Director, State Security Service; Director-General, Department of State Security Abuja, Inspector-General of Police and Chief of Army Staff.

    It accused the government of using security agents to deprive members of full opportunity of observing their religious obligations/activities.

    The movement sought the court’s declaration that the Kaduna State Gazette No.21 of October 7, 2016, and its contents thereof, which purportedly banned IMN in Nigeria and their religious activities in Kaduna State, constitutes a deliberate attempt at amending section 38(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), and Article 8 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act LFN 2010 by the first to the third respondents, acting in concert, and same constitutes an infraction and a deliberate effort at limiting the applicants’ Fundamental Right, as entrenched in the within mentioned laws.

    The group also seeks another declaration that the applicants are entitled to equal level of fair treatment and protection like any other citizens of Kaduna State by the respondents jointly and severally under all circumstances pursuant to Section 42(1) – (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended) and Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act LFN 2010.

    In view of the above, the IMN is seeking: “An order on the fourth to eighth respondents to henceforth provide security for the applicants during their major public religious activities and processions in Kaduna State.

    “An order for compensation, in the sum of N100,000, and public apology in favour of the applicants, for the excruciating pains and embarrassment suffered from the unlawful acts of the respondents against them.”

  • Girl-child: Okorocha’s wife, others advocate equal opportunities

    Girl-child: Okorocha’s wife, others advocate equal opportunities

    The challenges facing the girl-child are many and daunting. Ranging from domestic abuse, discrimination, intimidation, harassment to denial of equal opportunities with their male counterparts in education, employment, career and other social and economic pursuits, the girl child has endured the burden with little or no choice.

    Over the years, there have been growing awareness on the plight of the girl child, but little has been achieved in the fight to eliminate these challenges and give the womenfolk, especially the girl child equal opportunities to develop their potentials and actualize their ambitions.

    Also identified as major problems confronting the girl-child is early and forced marriage, which was described as dangerous and dehumanising.

    All these challenges were brought to the fore and brainstormed on by a non-governmental organisation, owned by the wife of the Imo State governor, Nkechi Rochas Okorocha, the Women of Divine Destiny Initiative (WODDI) recently during the event to mark this year’s International Day of the Girl Child.

    The stakeholders at the event including renowned female scholars, businessmen, traditional rulers, clergymen, among others, identified education as the most viable tool to fight all forms of marginalization of the girl child.

    They also blamed obsolete cultural practices that discriminate between the girl child and the male counterpart for most of the challenges confronting the girl child.

    The various speakers advocated unhindered access to quality education and equal opportunities for not sexes as the solution to the plight of the girl child.

    At the celebration with the theme: ‘Girls Progress-Goals Progress What counts for the Girl’, the governor’s wife , submitted that quality education is the bedrock and most viable tool in emancipating the girl child.

    Mrs Okorocha stated that the essence of the celebration is to equip the girl child to fulfil her potentials without any inhibition, adding that “if you get the girl child right,  you have gotten the society right”.

    She described the girl child as source of energy and creativity,  calling on the authorities to pay adequate attention to those things that count for the girl child,  like education and nutrition.

    According to her, girls are the strongest tools of change,  stressing that to attain the vision 2030 SDGs “there must be committed efforts towards empowering the girl-child for a better”.

    Mrs Okorocha also enjoined parents to desist from forcing their children into early marriages, arguing such act and other harmful practices exposes the girl child to danger.

    Other renowned scholars who presented papers on several topics,  including the rights of the girl child,  nutrition and education,  urged the girl child to speak up against any form of abuse, both at home and in their respective schools.

    The Chairman of the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Samuel Ohiri,  said that the Council had amended all the cultural practices and customs that discriminates and inhibits the girl child from achieving their set goals.

    He said that gone are the days when the girl child is regarded as inferior to the  male child,  adding that such assumption is a result of ignorance and illiteracy.

    He said, “The girl child is as good as the male child.  They should be given equal opportunities to succeed. The idea that the girl-child should sacrifice her education and other opportunities for the male child is condemnable”.

    Highlight of the event was the inauguration of WODDI Girls’ Club in selected  secondary schools , which will serve as a platform for further education and engagements with the girl-child, with the aim of further assistance and mentoring.