Residents of Tunga community of Minna in Niger State on Wednesday morning blocked a road to protest assault by officials of a task force constituted by the state government to enforce a ban on Okada riding.
The protesters said the task force fired teargas canister to the right breast of a nursing mother who was rushed to the Doctor Musa Inuwa General Hospital in Mohammad Inuwa Wushishi Housing Estate.
The protesters held placards with inscriptions such as “No law allows assault on women”, “You must respect human rights” and “We need justice”, while the women chanted, “We won’t tolerate this.”
The protesters also burnt tyres on the access road that connects Tunga Main Market and the Mobile Police Quarters.
The task force also reportedly slapped a 50-year-old-woman identified as Fatima Musa.
The woman told City & Crime that, “I was in the house and I heard noise outside. I came out and saw the task force and youths fighting. I just pleaded that they resolved the issue amicably, and one of the vigilantes slapped me and I fell down.”
When our correspondent visited the hospital, he was told that the nursing mother had been treated and discharged.
Narrating her experience when our reporter caught up with her, the victim, Hussaina Isah, told City & Crime that, “I didn’t know what was happening. I was coming out of our house when one of the officials fired the teargas directly at my chest. As I speak with you, I won’t be able to breastfeed my daughter. I am feeling pain in my chest”.
The husband, Ibrahim Isah, who was holding the shells of the teargas in his hand, threatened to sue the task force team, saying the assault on citizens was getting out of hand.
Isah said, “One of the mobile police threatened to shoot the people in our community. Government should disband this task force because they don’t have regards for human rights. What they do now is outside what they were asked to do.”
It took the intervention of the officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), whose headquarters is a few metres from the scene of the protest, for the situation to calm down.
The state’s police spokesman, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, declined comment on the incident.
There was also no response from the task force team on the allegations against them as at the time of filing this report.
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