A coalition of women groups have gone to a Federal High Court in Abuja to seek redress after they were teargassed and chased out of the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja during the protest against high cost of living in Nigeria.
The plaintiffs who sued for themselves and the 500 women are Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Enough Is Enough (EiE) GTE/Ltd, Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi and Ene Obi.
Others are Yemi Adamolekun, Sheilah Ibrahim Audu, Caroline Ene Oshaba and Emmanuela Azu.
The 500 women were said to have been physically harassed, teargassed and chased away from the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja by the police under the command of the IGP, despite obeying a court order restricting them to the area for the protest.
During the incident which happened on August 9, 2024, some of the women were said to have fallen and sustained some degrees of injuries.
The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun and Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), are listed as first and second defendants.
The plaintiffs in the suit with Ref No. FHC/ABJ/CS)1292/2024, and filed by their lawyer, Chino Edmund Obiagwu (SAN), therefore demanded N500 million for the violation of their rights to human dignity, freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Other reliefs include an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, by themselves or their agents and servants from preventing them from exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and movement and any citizen of Nigeria, in anyway whatsoever.
They also want the court to declare that the defendants violated their rights to human dignity and freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment guaranteed under Section 34 of the 1999 constitution.
The plaintiffs said that there was no provocation for the action of the police as there was no reason to prevent them from conducting peaceful protest in the stadium.
No date had been fixed for hearing.
Friday Olokor
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