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The Head of the Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the Nigerian Police, ACP Abayomi Shogunle has come under severe attack from Nigerians on social media following his comments on the recent arrests of scores women at a night club in Abuja for alleged prostitution.
About two weeks after police officers arrested 30 women at different night clubs in Abuja, another 70 women were reportedly arrested on Saturday night and detained at a police station in Utako, in the Nigerian capital.
Martin Obono, a lawyer and activist, who witnessed when the women were brought to the police station, said they were accused of prostitution.
“Their offence; clubbing and in some instance, prostitution,” Obono wrote on Twitter. “Some have been assaulted with injuries in their vaginas.
“One of the ladies arrested has a 2-month old baby. She wasn’t allowed to breastfeed her baby by CRO in charge on duty despite continuous plea amidst tears. It took the intervention of a female police officer who called the DPO to overrule the decision of the inspector at the time.
A lot of Nigerians condemned the raid in the face of the fact that even though prostitution is illegal in Abuja, law enforcement officials have used it as an excuse to assault and harass women who go out at night in the city. They hardly arrest men when the raid the night clubs but they pick up scantily dressed women.
Reacting to the condemnations that trailed the arrests, Shogunle, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, took to Twitter to justify the arrest.
He tweeted:
Those making noise on the clampdown on prostitutes in #Abuja;
•Prostitution is a crime under the law
•P is a sin under the 2 main religions of FCT residents
•Medicine says P is spreading HIV & STD
•P is lifeline of violent criminals
•P don’t pay tax
•?? culture frowns at P.
His tweet however angered many Nigerians who felt the police boss was pedestrian in his assertions.
See some of the many tweets