Ndume Faults Woman’s Arrest, Prosecution for Condemning Banditry

Former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, has condemned the arrest and prosecution of a woman, Hamdiya  Sidi, in Sokoto by the police for lamenting the incessant killings by bandits.

Ndume, an All Progressives Congress chieftain representing Borno South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, expressed the anger in a statement in Abuja.
He expressed support to a similar position taken by a northern coalition called Voices for Inclusion and Equity (VIEW) which had condemned Sidi’s arrest.
Ndume noted that Sidi’s lamentations on the killings was a way of drawing attention to the killings by  bandits, adding that there shouldn’t be any attempt to silence her through arrest.

But the Spokesperson for the Sokoto State  police command, Ahmad Rufai, had said Sidi was arrested and being prosecuted for inciting unrest in the state.

The woman had in a video lamented the insecurity in the state and demanded an end to the incessant killings by bandits.
She revealed how gunmen took over villages without any restraint, adding that displaced women seeking refuge in the state capital were being sexually exploited due to abject poverty and squalor.