The Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL), Monday Ubani, has condemned the recent decision by the Nigerian military to punish two of its officers Private Hannah Sofiah and popular skit maker, Abdulgafar Ahmed, also known as Cute Abiola.
While Hannah was detained for publicly accepting a marriage proposal by a National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) member, Cute Abiola was detained for almost three weeks for allegedly contravening Navy social media rules.
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In a statement on Tuesday, Ubani noted that while the army and navy reserved the right to maintain discipline amongst its officers, such actions must however be guided by the 1999 constitution, which guarantees the rights of all citizens including military officers.
He particularly condemned the illegal detention of Hannah, Abiola and some other military officers who had suffered such fate adding the constitution guaranteed military officers right to marriage.
Ubani said, “Whilst one cannot interrogate the rights of these agencies to maintain discipline in their organisations, one is astonished at the alacrity with which these citizens are thrown into illegal detention for an indiscriminate number of days with scant or no regard to the provisions of the constitution that guarantees several basic rights to the citizens including those who serve these security institutions.
‘In case those who are in the leadership of these institutions have forgotten or are not in the know, may we remind them that we are not under any military dictatorship but under civilian democracy since 1999.
“The provisions of the 1999 constitution as amended, particularly Chapter 4, guarantees right to personal liberty, right to fair hearing, right to dignity, right to movement etc.
“These rights are in existence and have not been abrogated.”
