In Nigeria, sometimes it’s a crime just being a woman

ABUJA: In Nigeria, being a young woman “is a crime”, said a 25-yearold beautician, arrested two weeks ago while walking home in the capital city.

She says she was detained, assaulted and then raped by those meant to protect her.

“Around 9.30pm, or 10pm, I was walking back home,” she said. “The police then arrested me accusing me of ‘being out late’.”

The officers demanded she pay 4,000 naira (RM44.50) but she did not have the cash. So the officers grabbed her, she said.

“They took me to the bush behind a building,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “There were four of them. They molested me, and while three were holding me down, one of them raped me. He didn’t use a condom.”

Several other women reported similar assaults that night.

In two dramatic raids last month, dozens of women were dragged out of nightclubs, hotels and bars – or simply taken off the streets.

They were arrested for prostitution, a charge many furiously denied.

The sweeping crackdown in the federal capital has sparked outrage in the news and on social media in Africa’s most populous nation.

Prostitution, although illegal in Nigeria, is still widespread in the cities and often tolerated. Capital city Abuja – is a mix of southern and northern tribes and traditions.

Testimonies from women provide shocking stories of multiple and brutal sexual assaults. The women accuse officers from the federal police force.

Lawyer and activist Martin Obono happened to be at the Utako police station in Abuja on the night of April 26 for another case.

“I was there when the girls got out of the vehicles, screaming, and some of them were bleeding,” Obono said, adding the women said they had been attacked in the vehicles as they were brought to the police station.

“They told me the policemen used objects, like sticks, to touch their private parts,” Obono said.

One of the women was a mother with a two-month-old baby.

“She wasn’t allowed to breastfeed her, despite continuous crying,” Obono said. “It took the intervention of a female police officer for that.”

Women organisations are now calling for a government intervention on the matter. — AFP