ANTI-Corruption Research Based Data Initiatives (ARDI), an NGO, on Tuesday urged the Nigeria Police to  be more professional in the discharge of their duties to save government from unnecessary embarrassment.

Mr Denis Aghanya, Executive Secretary of ARDI, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the recent “arrest of women in Owerri unnecessarily heated up the polity’’.

He spoke against the background of the unconditional release of the 114 women suspected to be members of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) by a high court on Friday in Owerri.

The women were remanded by an Owerri Magistrate’s Court after they were arrested and arraigned by the police for demanding to know the whereabouts of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kalu.

“I will advise that our security agencies be more professional in the discharge of their duties.

“Their overzealousness causes the executive to always be busy on damage control over situations that would have been avoided originally,’’ Aghanya said.

According to him, incarceration of the women desecrates the culture of the people.

Similarly, Executive Secretary of Campaign for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (CCHR), Toyin Raheem, urged the women to file a charge against Imo government.

“I strongly advise the women to sue the government to claim damages for their incarceration.

“ The constitution permits freedom of association, and being a member of an association cannot be a crime.

“Self-determination on its own is not a crime except if the agitation becomes violent.

“The court has done well and has lived to expectation as the hope of the common man,’’ Raheem said. (NAN)

– Aug. 28, 2018 @ 17:15 GMT |