Olumide Bajulaiye
21 August 2007
Lagos — Over half of the women arrested for wearing "indecent" clothes nearly a month ago are still in prison, Daily Trust can reveal. Some of the women who spoke to Daily Trust alleged molestation at the hands of the police.
They accused the police of picking them off the street, branding them as prostitutes and then coming into the cells to sexually abuse them at night.
The police deny this, but say that anyone found "idling around" in skimpy attire would be arrested. Fifty-two of the 100 ladies arraigned in Lagos about three weeks ago for alleged misconduct could not get bail and are in Kirikiri Prison awaiting trail.
Magistrate Adeola Adedayo of an Ikeja Magis-trate's court granted the accused persons bail in the sum of N20,000 each, and ordered that they should be remanded at the Kirikiri Minimum Prisons until they paid the N20,000 cash.
The prosecutor, Sergeant Chris Takim, told the court during their arraignment that the ladies were indecently dressed, stressing that their conduct could lead to "chaos".
He said that the offence was punishable under Section 249 of the Lagos State laws 2003 and attracted two years jail term on conviction.
Investigations by Daily Trust showed that majority of those still in detention have not been able to contact their relatives who are outside Lagos State.
Miss Rosemary Raphael, who was at the court last Friday to fulfil her bail condition, said that she was a polytechnic student, but did not say the name of her school. She said: "Most of us arrested by the police for alleged prostitution or indecent dressing are students, travellers and traders."
Raphael appealed to the state government to release her colleagues, who were not able to pay the N20,000 cash required for their bail.
Chinwe Okorie, a textile worker from Oshodi said: "They accused me of wearing a mini skirt and a short T-shirt. I told them that I had just closed from work and showed them my identity card but they did not listen to me. They took me to their station where I met some other arrested ladies. They called all of us prostitutes.
"At night, some of them will come and start touching our breasts and I told them that I am not a prostitute, but they wouldn't listen."
Mrs. Chiegozie Albert, who claimed to be a mother of two said she was arrested along Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja, on her way to the market. "Their (police) vehicle stopped beside me and they pushed me into it. They called me asewo (prostitute) because I was wearing jeans trousers and an open top. I told them that I am a housewife but they didn't listen to me. It was my husband who learnt of my arrest that came to bail me.
He paid N5,000 before I was released," she stated. While parading the suspects, the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Muhammed Abubakar, said the ladies were arrested in the night at their brothels.
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