Police Arrest, Detain Activist Over Protest Against NAPTIP

For daring to organize a demonstration against the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), a Gombe State-based activist, Comrade Musa Ali Maishanu, has been arrested, detained and prosecuted by the Police Command.

According to Tribune Online, Maishanu is the North-East Regional Coordinator of a non-governmental organization, Global Pan-Africanism Network Nigeria (GPAN).

Speaking with journalists on Sunday, the lawyer to the activist, Barrister Ibrahim Ambore Nuhu said that his client had threatened NAPTIP with protest for allegedly refusing to treat with justice, a case of a 27-year-old woman, Hauwa’u Musa.

According to him, the woman popularly known as ‘Ladidi’ in the state was taken away from the state since she was a little girl to Adamawa State and married off when she became an adult without the consent of her mother.

The legal practitioner added that his client through his NGO, GPAN, on receiving the case, handed it over to NAPTIP because it had to do with girl trafficking for investigation and necessary action, alleging however that the agency released the culprits involved in the case on the same day without taking appropriate action.

“She was taken to Adamawa State by one woman since she was a little child who later lied to her mother that her child died in Cameroon where she travelled with her. The mother accepted the event in good faith as death is inevitable,” he added.

Ibrahim Ambore added that “recently, the mother uncovered that the girl is still alive and was married in Adamawa State. In view of that, she was brought to Gombe for identification. The mother recognized her at once and the culprit confessed to have trafficked the girl and apologized over her act.

“However, when comrade got the complaint, he handed it over to NAPTIP because it was a case of trafficking but instead of investigating the matter, he alleged that they discharged the culprits the same day. It was as a result of it, that he threatened that a demonstration would be organized against the NAPTIP to demand justice for the girl now a woman.”

The legal practitioner added that “thus, NAPTIP reported him to DSS who detained him, handed him over to the Police CID who later arraigned him before the Chief Magistrate Court 8 in the state.”

He, therefore, demanded that his client should be released unconditionally because he did not run foul of any law of the country considering the fact that he has the right to fight against any form of injustice. By Ishola Michael, Gombe.