Ayo Sogunro, a Nigerian lawyer and activist, described how he spent the night in an Abuja police cell after having a married female friend visit him in his hotel room.
Sogunro said that he arrived in Abuja for a human rights meeting last Friday and contacted some of his friends to let them know he was there in a lengthy thread on Twitter on Wednesday.
His first guest at the hotel was a married female friend (name omitted), and shortly after she arrived, the police showed up in his room.
He partly tweeted, “Of the people I texted, she was the first to get to my place. I checked into the hotel around 6: 20 pm and she got there around 6:40 pm. Barely 15 minutes later, three police officers came to my door.
“When the police arrived at my door, they asked to be let inside.
“I denied them entrance and told them they had no authority to enter a private space without a warrant or a clear just cause. Instead, they just pushed me aside and made their way in.
“On seeing my friend, they asked her to come with them. We both asked why. The police replied that my friend was a married woman, so she should not have been in the hotel with me.”
The activist and her female buddy continued to argue with the cops as they headed to the station.
In Northern Nigeria, which the Penal Code governs, the Divisional Police Officer at the station indicated that it was suspicious for a married woman to visit a guy, and the police officers were justified in entering his room without a warrant because of this.
He had a protracted conversation with the DPO before being sent to a cell, where he spent the night.
“The night behind bars was philosophical. Later, I was more amused than angry. The idea of coming to do a human rights event in Nigeria only to end up in a cell was a hilarious and tragic testament to the Nigerian condition,” Sogunro said.
