Legal Updates

Lawyer Arrested In Abuja Hotel Over Alleged Adultery.

Published

11 months ago

June 22, 2023

Stella Charles Akupue

Penal Code

According to Nigerian Police, under the Penal Code, it is highly suspicious for a married woman to visit a man in Northern Nigeria.

A Nigerian lawyer, Ayo Sogunro, narrated how police officers arrested him and threw him into a cell after a married female friend visited him in his hotel room.

He shared his experience.

Ayo stated that he was visiting Abuja for a Human rights meeting with several NGOs when he contacted his friends residing in the Federal Capital Territory so they could all hang out. He said his female married friend paid him a visit in his hotel room, after which, to his surprise, the police came in to arrest them.

He said the police told him that as they were in Northern Nigeria, under the Penal Code, it is highly suspicious for a married woman to visit a man and that the police officers were correct to invade his room without a warrant. He added that he was made to sleep in a police cell and was released the next day.

Read his Tweet below…

“So, about last weekend’s events.

I had come to Abuja to facilitate a human rights meeting with several NGOs, and my accommodation was also booked at the hotel where the meeting would occur.

Soon as I landed, I sent messages to my friends in Abuja confirming that I was around.

Whenever I am in Nigeria, my friends welcome me at my accommodation, share a drink or two, and have a general gist. This time was no different.

For now.

One of them promised to stop by on her way home from work, also in the area.

Of the people I texted, she was the first to get to my place. I checked into the hotel around 6.20pm, and she arrived around 6.40pm. Barely 15 minutes later, three police officers came to my door.

When the police arrived at my door, they asked to be let inside.

I denied them entrance and told them they had no authority to enter a private space without a warrant or a clear cause. Instead, they just pushed me aside and made their way in.

On seeing my friend, they asked her to come with them. We both asked why. The police replied that my friend was a married woman and should not have been in the hotel with me. I said this was ridiculous. She was a citizen of Nigeria and had a right to meet with anyone.

The officers insisted that she must come with them, and so must I. For ‘questioning’.

I said, NO WAY. ON WHAT GROUNDS

If they wanted to arrest me, I would comply. But I would not voluntarily follow them to answer questions on unclear and unstated allegations.

This argument went back and forth for a while; one officer even recorded it on his phone. Some other police officers were called in as backup (making them about 6 total). A few of my other friends also arrived. Hotel management came in. It was becoming quite the scene.

Eventually, the officers got fed up with my refusal to voluntarily accompany them and said they were putting me under arrest – still no clear allegation or reason.

My friend and I followed them out of the hotel, where a van was waiting, and they took us to the station.

UNWARRANTED ARREST OF LAWYERS BY THE POLICE.

Up to this point, I still had my phone on me. I wasn’t touched or cuffed, or assaulted by the officers. Our interaction throughout was verbal only. I used my phone to make calls and alert people about what was unfolding.

But because I was still confused by what was going on – and the officers were not telling me who had sent them, how they discovered my room, or why I had been targeted (and also to forestall the worst) I sent out a series of tweets to alert the wider public.

But the police officers did not appreciate my putting the tweets out. They asked me to turn off my phone at the station and hand it over. I did.

They asked me to write a statement without context regarding the charges, and I declined to do so without my lawyer present.

After a while, behind the counter, they called me for an interview with the DPO. I was still quite upset at this disruption of my day – and all this started barely one hour after I had landed in Nigeria and entered Abuja.

I told the DPO everything they did wrong:

– the process of arrest before investigation;

– using the police to settle what was now seeming to be a marital issue not involving me;

– barging into a hotel room without a warrant; and

– taking me into custody without an actual charge.

Lawyer Arrested In Abuja Hotel Over Alleged Adultery.

The DPO countered that (as we were in Northern Nigeria under the Penal Code) it was highly suspicious for a married woman to visit me, and the police were within their rights to have intervened and entered my hotel room without all that process.

I then asked her, if that’s the case, where’s their evidence that any offence had been committed.

She said she was not obliged to give me any evidence and I should simply state my case and explain myself to her. Lol.

She suggested that I was enticing my friend – against the Penal Code. I lol. My friend and I went back 15 years from Law School. It was customary in my world that people (regardless of sex, gender or marital status) visited me where I reside in Nigeria, and these were always hotels.

I then went into a long rant with the DPO about the need for proper police procedure, constitutional rights, guarding rights and autonomy.

Eventually, she got fed up with my sermon and asked them to book me and take me to the cells. The issue then appeared to seem that, because I was continuing to be ‘rowdy’ and kept trying to demonstrate a clear understanding of law and police procedure, all the police officers had been offended.

Taking me into custody for the night was presumably to ‘teach me a lesson’.

The rest of the story is about the practical aspects of that lesson in respecting police officers.

By the next day, I realised that ‘cooling down’ was the way forward if I was still interested in leaving their station and conducting the event that had brought me to Abuja.

As they would not release me without a statement and a surety – I wrote a statement on the advice of my lawyer, and a good friend stood surety for me.

I can’t say how this case started or how my room was identified. I still have questions myself. I don’t know whether or not there was a political element. However, I received solidarity visits from folks in both APC and PDP (as well as representatives from the NBA and the NHRC).

The night behind bars was philosophical. Later, I was more amused than angry. The idea of coming to do a human rights event in Nigeria only to end up in a cell was a hilarious and tragic testament to the Nigerian condition.

Btw, I had great cellmates – but that’s another story.

By the time I was released Saturday, I was on good terms with all the duty and arresting officers.

My people even advised me to mend fences with the DPO, and I went back into her offices to apologise for being an ‘unruly’ activist. Not sure if that worked.

Anyway, suppose you ask me why I am a feminist ally. In that case, it is because of issues like this: we live in a country where a married woman cannot merely visit a male friend alone without both of them risking arrest and detention under gendered laws and their arbitrary application.

Suppose you ask me why I believe in liberal democracy. In that case, we cannot have a conservative country where the police are saddled with policing morality rather than protecting citizens from actual crimes. Because under such laws, everyone is a target.

If you ask me why I fight for human rights, it is because human rights are the only safeguard against the misuse of power. Otherwise, laws can be weaponised and become the arbitrary tools of those with some power against those without them.

Lawyer Arrested In Abuja Hotel Over Alleged Adultery.

Although the whole incident is behind me, I still feel there are systemic issues in the policing process that need to be addressed.

Otherwise, the less-privileged Nigerian may not be as fortunate as I have been in standing up for myself and navigating the system.

Grateful again for the show of support online and offline. I have never doubted the power of social media in bringing about social change in Nigeria, and last weekend’s events and the overwhelming solidarity from my online community was another testimony to this.”

Click Button Below to Join Our Telegram Groups