Against the directives of the constitution of Nigeria, the police force operating in the Rivers State area has detained a 57-year-old woman, Ala Alatoru. She is in detention by for more than a month.
The River state police officers detained Alatoru on the directions of the former first lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan.
According to some sources, the police arrested Alatoru on September 23, 2022. The police have her in detention without charging her with any crimes. She does not have access to a lawyer and bail.
This action contradicts the 1999 Nigerian constitution. The constitution states that persons arrested or detained must be brought before the court within a “reasonable time”.
As per the constitution of Nigeria, reasonable time means not exceeding 24 hours in case a court of competent jurisdiction is within 40 kilometres of the police station. In any other cases, the constitution permits a period of two days
Thus, this directive implies that the detention of arrested suspects for more than 48 hours without them being charged in court is against the Nigerian constitution’s provisions.
Reportedly, the former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, verbally accused the detained Ms Alatoru of negligence over an incident at her residence at Bauchi Street, Old GRA in Port Harcourt.
Patience Jonathan’s family member has elaborated upon her accusation, stating that Ala Alatoru is an assistant to Mrs Jonathan. Her duties include managing Jonathan’s residence in Port Harcourt, amongst others. Thus she has a set of keys and opens the home.
She also supervises the cleaning of the residence by cleaners under her purview. On one such occasion, one of the cleaners duplicated the keys of Jonathan’s private quarters entrusted to Ala Alatoru.
Following this, the cleaner accessed the private quarters using the keys he duplicated, stealing gold jewellery, true to the allegation of Patience Jonathan. The police caught the culprit, and he also confessed to the crime. The officers also seized the people to whom he sold the items. They are all currently in Police custody.
However, the cleaner confessed to the crime while stating that he acted alone. He said that Ala Alatoru had nothing to do with it and did not know anything about the theft. The police officers arrested Ala Alatoru due to alleged negligence in this incident.
