Of all the stupidest things I read this week, none was more stupid than the Ekiti State Police Command standing behind their dismissal of a pregnant policewoman because according to Mr. Babatunde Mobayo, the command’s commissioner,

“Section 126 of the regulation (states) that married woman police (sic) who is pregnant may be granted maternity leave, while Section 127 (states that) unmarried woman police (sic) who becomes pregnant shall be discharged from the Force" & needs IGP's approval to be enlisted
So if Sis had been married, she would not have been punished. And if the man who got her pregnant had been a police officer one is to assume he wouldn’t have lost his job. It wouldn’t have mattered then whether he was married or not.
It is frustrating that in this 21st century, our women are still being treated like second class citizens with single women at the bottom of the ladder. In some cities, young women can’t rent because foolish landlords refuse to rent to unmarried women.
Some hotels won’t let them in because no man. What’s next? Single women can’t drive? Shop? Eat? Women need to show proof of marriage to teach? Enter cabs? Travel? The ridiculousness knows no end. Na who do us this thing?
I don’t know what this woman’s background is but I know how tough it is in Naija to get a job. She lands one and then she’s losing it because she’s an unmarried, adult woman carrying the baby in her womb with her full chest.
Biko, someone make it make sense because I am struggling and my head is pounding like mad. Now, this woman is going to spend the time she should have been enjoying the pregnancy fretting over her loss of income.
The same people responsible for her predicament are the same people who will demonize her for trying to make money any way she can because it is highly unlikely, in our economy, that she will get another job anytime soon.
Say she has no family who can help her out, say she has no friends who can help out, say she has no savings, what is she meant to do with a baby on the way? Gather pebbles and pray over them until they turn to bundles of money? Walk in traffic with a cup out begging for alms?
Wait for money to fall like manna from heaven? What manner of outdated thinking is this that believes that this section 127 is law that should be taken seriously and followed in this day and age?
& the IGP who needs to give (his?) approval, why didn’t he give it before this mess happened? And why, oh, why is this still even a thing?
Laws are man-made. They are bound by time and place. They are not unchangeable. Certainly when a law is not moral, when it discriminates, when it is as foolish as this one is, we should not be afraid to ignore it and demand for it to be revoked.
It frightens me to think of how many more anti-women laws are still on the books in Nigeria. Maybe this is the time to comb through our laws and make sure that oppressive ones are expunged.
It does not make any kind of sense that in the 21st century a woman in Nigeria cannot keep her job because she is not married. How is a husband going to make Police Constable Omolola a better policewoman, pregnant or not? Na husband follow am go training?
Will they start carrying out virginity tests too so that women daring to have sex outside of marriage do not get to stain the sanctity of the force? Because you know, to get pregnant out of wedlock, the officer would have to have been having sex out of it too.
Shame on all the officers who signed Olajide Omolola’s dismissal, who uphold her dismissal, who defend her dismissal and those who remain silent in the face of this unfairness. Sometimes Naija too dey shame person.
https://t.co/FVO4tjEmiv

More from Legal

More severe police injuries and deaths on that one day of rampaging Trumpers than in five years of Anti-Police protests.


You can tell a lot about the stance of a angry crowd by whether they come with shields or pitchforks.

If people protesting police brutality for years had wanted to use their large numbers to attack, maim and kill police, they damn well could have.

But they came to resist police.

Which is completely different.

Why did the police suffer more at the hands of those who claimed to support them and waved their flags than at the hands of those who think they should be defunded or abolished?

Because one group is literally arguing for human dignity and the other glorifies violence.

The people who uncritically support police brutality are those who believe that instrumental violence should be a standard tool in response to those standing opposed to you.

Once you accept that... WHO is standing opposed to you doesn't matter much.
These people weren't murdered. They were legally executed after convictions for horrendous crimes, being sentenced to the death penalty, and going through countless appeals.


You can oppose the death penalty as a punishment without pretending that the people executed were victims or that carrying out those executions is comparable to murder.

As an example: Daniel Lee was a white supremacist who murdered a family (including an 8-year-old girl) by suffocating them with bags and then dumping their bodies in a swamp.

That's whose name @CoriBush wants you to remember.

Wesley Purkey admitted to kidnapping, raping, and then murdering a 16-year-old girl named Jennifer Long. He then dismembered her body. He also beat an 80-year-old woman to death.

Maybe we should learn the names of his victims instead, @CoriBush?

Dustin Honken was a meth dealer that murdered 5 people, including 2 girls under the age of 11, because their dad was set to testify against him on drug charges. He was specifically sentenced to death for killing the 2 kids.
A detention hearing is about to start in federal court in Arkansas in the case of Richard Barnett, the man photographed sitting in Nancy Pelosi's office (see: https://t.co/GAAENhkxf0). He's been in custody since his arrest

Prosecutors alleged Barnett was carrying a stun gun. He's charged with entering a restricted area w/ a weapon, violent entry/disorderly conduct, and theft. There isn't anything on the docket indicating what the govt/Barnett will be seeking as far as detention v. release


We're still waiting for the Richard Barnett detention hearing to start in Arkansas. Meanwhile, follow @o_ema for updates on initial appearances in DC federal court today for a few of the Capitol insurrection arrestees -->


Richard Barnett's detention hearing is underway in Arkansas — Judge Erin Wiedemann will decide if Barnett should stay behind bars. The first witness is FBI special agent Jonathan Willett, who was involved in the Capitol riot investigation

FBI agent walks the judge through surveillance videos that the agent says show Barnett walking in and out of Nancy Pelosi's office, with a "walking stick Taser" on his hip, as well as the widely disseminated photos of Barnett sitting in Pelosi's chair with his feet up

You May Also Like