The Nigeria Police Force in Rivers State has detained a 57-year-old woman, Ala Alatoru, for over one month on the orders of Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s former First Lady. The action is however against the 1999 Nigerian constitution which clearly states that persons arrested or detained shall be brought before a court within a “reasonable time”. According to the constitution, the reasonable time means a period of 24 hours when a court of competent jurisdiction is within a radius of 40 kilometres to the police station or a period of two days in any other case.
Nigerian Police Illegally Detain 57-year-old Woman In Rivers State On Orders Of Former First Lady, Patience JonathanThe Nigeria Police Force in Rivers State has detained a 57-year-old woman, Ala Alatoru, for over one month on the orders of Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s former First Lady.
This implies that the detention of arrested suspects for more than 48 hours without being charged to court is against the provisions of the constitution. “Mrs. Ala Alatoru is an assistant to Mrs Jonathan, part of her duties includes managing of the Jonathan’s residence in Port Harcourt amongst others. Hence she has a set of keys and opens the residence whenever Mrs. Jonathan is around or on her instructions to open for visitors. She also supervises the cleaning of the residence by cleaners under her purview. On one of such cleaning occasions; one of the cleaners duplicated the keys of Mrs Jonathan’s private quarters entrusted to Mrs.