A frontline civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called for the arrest and prosecution of the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Ramatu Tijani Aliyu, for alleged violation of the anti-Covid-19 stay-at- home order and social distancing regime, accusing of her of going about supervising the fumigation of some areas of the metropolis in Abuja alongside dozens of residents and a large retinue of hangers on and staff.

HURIWA also condemned the decision of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice for arresting and prosecuting the renowned entertainer and actress, Mrs. Funke Akindele-Bello, her husband and musical maestro, Naira Marley, for failing to observe the anti-Covid-19 curfew.

The rights group said the popular entertainers were made scapegoat by the state for pure populism and to attract public acclaim and divert attention from the heightened accusations of abandonment of the poor families by the Lagos State Government even after picking up N10 billion Covid-19 fund.

According to HURIWA, “This choreographed detention and prosecution of Funke Akindele-Bello and co was orchestrated as a perfect diversionary tactics to keep people busy talking about it whilst not remembering that some Lagos residents angrily rejected loafs of bread donated to them as relief materials by some officials.

“This was just some kind of exhibitionism by the Lagos State Government to try to hoodwink the gullible people that it is working even when government has failed to address the larger issues of forcing families to stay at home with no electricity power and no clean water supplies to millions of Lagosians as we write.

“In as much as we are not condoning lawlessness, we believe that Funke Akindele and her family are victims of a lynch mob social media justice advocates who found an ally in the Lagos state administration that yearns to divert attention from some deep rooted social failures during this Covid-19 curfew. Her conviction is illegal and we urge her to repudiate her guilty plea and file an appeal making use of the services of a smart legal team to overturn the charade of a court decision done by a court whose prosecution team also failed to observe social distancing rule as can be seen from the photo taken from the entrance of the court room.”

HURIWA recalled that the actress who was arrested on Sunday April 5th by the Lagos state police command for flouting the social distancing order of the state government, spent the night at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) office in Panti, Lagos, and was subsequently arraigned in the magistrate court where she reportedly pleaded guilty to the charges and was slammed with a month in prison or a fine of N100,000.

The rights group however carpeted aspects of the sit-at-home regulation as violations of the fundamental human rights provisions in Chapter 4 of the Nigerian Constitution regarding right to privacy. It stated that the aspect of the regulation that does not require arrest warrant before the law enforcement agencies can invade the privacy of people’s homes is unlawful because that is tantamount to legalizing arbitrary arrests and detention the constitution strictly frowns at. The group said the overzealous police operatives have started abusing some of these bogus and illegal provisions of the regulation to violate the rights of citizens with reckless abandon.

HURIWA also accused the police of double standards for failing to arrest the serving FCT Minister of State, Ms Ramatu Aliyu, and her security details who thronged a section of Abuja on April 06 for fumigation of some areas of Abuja without the government and security officials observing social distancing.

“Is the Nigerian law not supposed to apply to everyone? Why was Funke Akindele arrested and charged for flouting the curfew when she only held a social party of few guests compared to the Abuja Minister of State who gathered nearly a 100 people in a place to commission the jamboree of fumigation of Abuja markets? This double standards defeat the cause of constitutionalism,” the rights group said.

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