Ben Ezechime, Enugu
In a human rights update made available in Enugu on Thursday, human rights group, Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN), has frowned at the continuous abuse of women’s rights in Nigeria.
In a statement, the President of CRRAN, Olu Omotayo Esq., lamented the increasing cases of women being stripped in public places in Nigeria.
He said: “All human beings – male and female – are born free, without inhibition on grounds of sex; and that is constitutional.
“Any form of societal discrimination on grounds of sex, apart from being unconstitutional, is antithetic to a civil society built on the tenets of democracy, which we have freely chosen as a people. Niki Tobi JCA (as he then was) in Mojekwu v. Mojekwu (1997) 7 NWLR (pt. 512) 283.”
According to him, this was the statement made by Hon. Justice Niki Tobi JCA (before his elevation to the Supreme Court Bench).
He continued: “The recent cases in which women were stripped naked by both state and non-state actors depict a state of barbarism by the so-called enforcers of certain laws in each of the cases.
“In Comfort Emmanson’s case, it was worrisome that such an act of barbarity could be exhibited at Nigeria’s foremost airport in this 21st century.
“A mob of able-bodied men were seen on camera stripping and dragging a lady out of an aircraft, when the normal thing would have been to promptly invite female law enforcement agents to act professionally and arrest the lady without portraying the country as a jungle.
“Till date, none of the men who acted like motor park touts in the incident have either been arrested or reprimanded, hence the temerity of the local vigilante members formed by an educated professor, from whom much is expected as a governor, but who prefers an assemblage of hooligans to ensure and provide security for his state.
“The activities of the local vigilante group formed by the Anambra State governor have been worrisome because there have been complaints of human rights abuses by the outfit, as people are detained arbitrarily and made to pay for bail in some instances.
“The vigilante outfit in Anambra State operates above the Nigerian law. This is evidenced by the fact that the brutality meted on Jennifer Edema Elohor, the female Youth Corps member, happened on 25th July 2025, and despite complaints to the security outfit’s office, nothing was done until the video of the assault became viral.”
The rights group condemned the jungle justice and acts of stripping women naked by state and non-state actors as aberrant and unconstitutional.
“We also submit that this is an assault on the constitutional right to the dignity of human persons. Section 31(1a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, provides that every individual is entitled to the respect for the dignity of his person and no person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment.
“It is further submitted that the act of stripping citizens naked amounts to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and is therefore unlawful and unconstitutional.
“It is also submitted that the acts of the Federal Government and the Anambra State Government and their agents in respect of these matters are contrary to the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.“
Furthermore, Omotayo noted that the Convention’s underlying philosophy is that discrimination against women is incompatible with human dignity and constitutes an obstacle to the full realization of the potential of women.
CRRAN said that both the Federal Government and the Anambra State Government should take proactive and definite actions in respect of these matters.
“These actions of the agents of the respective governments fell short of what is acceptable in the comity of decent nations of the world,” he said.
