The 114 women arrested for asking for the whereabouts of Nnamdi Kanu, should be set free immediately.
A group of women numbering about 114, stripped themselves to their bras, chanted war songs and held aloft placards asking the government to produce Nnamdi Kanu who disappeared without trace on September 14, 2017.
For their troubles, they were quickly rounded up, hauled into police vans and locked up. The incident occurred in Owerri, the Imo State capital, last Friday, August 17, 2018.
Imo State police spokesperson, Andrew Enwerem, said the women were arrested for conducting an “illegal assembly and holding an unlawful protest”. Whatever that means.
But all the women actually did was pull off their clothes, dance naked, lie on the floor and dare the police to stop them. All the women did was encircle the Government House roundabout in Owerri, create a scene and scream their lungs out. They were unarmed, peaceful protesters. They were not going about slapping people in the face.
They were well within their rights to scream all they wanted. For goodness sake, they were asking for their 'son' who just disappeared from the face of the earth.
The police decree that says people must obtain permits before taking to the streets in protest, is now an anachronism and harks back to the dark military era. In any case, the constitutional provision of freedom of movement, speech and association supersedes whatever decree of law enforcement there is. People have the right to vent their spleen on the streets as long as they aren’t violent about it.
What exactly does the police mean by unlawful protest? Which protests are lawful and which aren’t?
It’s almost a year since Kanu vanished for leading the now proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) whose ultimate goal borders on self-determination and secession.
Interestingly, Kanu disappeared after soldiers invaded his home in Afaraukwu, Umuahia. His parents have also not been seen since the raid. Which self-respecting government would carry on with business as usual when someone it is trying for a “crime as grievous as treason” vanishes from the face of the earth?
Asking for Kanu’s whereabouts is a legitimate demand, and his disappearance should confound and embarrass the government. Those who say the government is complicit in Kanu’s disappearance may also be proven right if the government keeps locking up people asking where Kanu is.
The Owerri 114 should be let out of jail with immediate effect. All they did was ask questions which government should readily provide answers to. No one should be locked up in a democracy for simply asking questions.
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