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Some ladies, who were convicted by a mobile court for alleged prostitution, on Thursday, narrated how they were harassed, molested and assaulted by some men of the Nigeria Police in Abuja.
    The ladies said they were arrested during a raid by the agents of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Joint Task Team, which is comprised of the Department of Development Control, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Social Development Secretariat (SDS). The ladies, in a chat with newsmen, alleged that policemen attached to Utako, Life Camp and Gwarimpa police stations, raped and physically assaulted them in custody. They also claimed that they were compelled to plead guilty when they were arraigned before the court on Monday by the police. A victim explained that a policeman attached to the Utako Police station identified as ‘Yellow,’ hit her with a baton and horse whip several times, injuring her arm and face during the assault. Other co-convicts also lamented the alleged emotional abuse and physical torture they suffered while in police cell last week.
    Another victim, who claimed to have been arrested at a shopping plaza, said the policemen attached to the FCT ministerial task raped her when she could not pay them.The lady said she was held down by three policemen while one of them raped her without a condom. and that two other girls were raped by the same policemen. She said: “Three of us were brought out of the van and raped by the policemen because we had no money to give them. We were raped behind the National War College. They pushed me to the ground and held me there while one of them raped me. He didn’t wear a condom. The other girls were also raped by two others one of who used a pure water sachet as condom. Another victim said she was picked up by the police at a hotel where she attended a birthday party. She said: “I was invited to a birthday party at an apartment in a hotel. I came to the reception to get bottled water, a woman held my hands and pushed me out of the hotel and I saw a lot of people with cameras and some with mobile phones taking my pictures and shooting a video of the arrest.
    An activist, Dorothy Njemanze, during the briefing, also narrated her experience in the hands of policemen who allegedly molested her. Njemanze said she was awarded N6 million damages by the ECOWAS court in 2017. Seventy-two Women’s Organizations, Activists, Scholars, Civil Society and Human Rights Organisations in Nigeria, had on Tuesday strongly condemned recent raids, assault and sexual harassment and of over 100 women in Abuja.