A 16-year-old girl in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has been remanded in prison after standing up for her elderly mother against disrespect from a court bailiff.
The girl, whose name has been withheld due to her age, was arrested by the FCT Police on Wednesday and charged after a confrontation that began with a court official delivering a letter to her family.
Narrating what happened, Priye Diri, a women’s rights defender with the Dorothy Njemanze Foundation, told FIJ that the bailiff who visited the girl’s house to deliver a letter threw it at the elderly woman who had asked him to read its content to her.
Diri said as the girl was coming out of the house, she saw what had happened and asked the bailiff why he threw the letter at her mother, but he remained silent and walked away.
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On Wednesday, Diri said, some people visited the girl’s house to arrest her but refused to present a warrant to the girl’s mother. When the mother insisted that her daughter would not go anywhere, the men then said it was the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) who had called for them.
Because the mother knew the DPO, she agreed to go to the police station with her daughter, but it was a different situation when they arrived at the station.
“When they got there, Madam Margret, a police officer, slapped the girl repeatedly before putting her behind the counter. Shocked, the mother asked what was going on, but they said it was an ‘order from above’,” Diri told FIJ on Thursday.
“I was there until 4 am. They didn’t let us into the police station. They took her to the cell and refused to allow her to have food or use the blanket her mother had brought for her. Meanwhile, no document explained why she was there; there was no warrant.
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“While we were there, I called the head of the FCT Gender Unit, who called the DPO herself. He said he could do nothing and that different numbers had also been calling him on the matter. On Wednesday, the claim was that she physically abused the man. Today, they claimed it was verbal abuse.”
On Thursday, Diri said the magistrate asked the bailiff what happened in court, but after the bailiff narrated what had happened, the magistrate read out the judgment and ordered that the girl be remanded at Suleja Prison until Tuesday.
“Afterwards, her sister called and said the girl had been taken to a juvenile centre because we’ve been able to prove she’s underage. But we told the police and the judge since yesterday, yet they failed to listen,” she said.
When FIJ called Josephine Adeh, the FCT Police Spokesperson, she did not take the calls. She had yet to respond to the text sent to her at press time.
The post 16-Year-Old Girl Arrested, Imprisoned in Abuja on ‘Order From Above’ for Standing Up for Mum appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.