In what is coming as a really rare development, Magistrate Farida Ibrahim of the Chief Magistrate Court in Wuse 6, Abuja, on Wednesday sentenced a young man to 15 strokes of public flogging.
The Chief Magistrate Ibrahim handed down a sentence of public flogging to the young man accused of fighting with a prostitute.
He based the ruling solely on testimony presented by the police. The young man reportedly admitted during interrogation that he had been involved in a fight with a commercial s*x worker.
The defendant was not represented by legal counsel, and no further evidence beyond his alleged confession was tendered in court.
The young man, whose identity has not been formally released, was reportedly apprehended by police officers and brought before the court.
Meanwhile, the details about what led to the fight remain unclear.
Police told the court that the man confessed to engaging in a physical confrontation with a woman identified as a commercial s*x worker, which they said constituted a public disturbance.
Section 34(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution guarantees that “no person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment.”
Legal experts argue that public flogging, especially when imposed without legal representation or due process, violates this constitutional protection.
A notable recent example is the 2022 case in Kano State, where two TikTokers were sentenced to 20 strokes of the cane and community service by a Senior Magistrates’ Court for allegedly defaming then-Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.
Senior Magistrate Aminu Gabari sentenced the defendants to 20 strokes of the cane and 30 days of community service, including sweeping and washing the toilets of the court complex at Noman’s Land.
The TikTokers were arrested and charged for a video they made criticising Ganduje. The judge ordered the flogging to be carried out immediately within the court premises.
Mr Gabari also ordered the convicts to pay a N20,000 fine each, make a video on social media and tender an apology to Ganduje.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Wada Ahmad-Wada, had told the court that the defendants committed the offence sometime in October 2022 on their TikTok accounts.
He said the defendants posted on their TikTok account that Ganduje never saw a piece of land without selling it and that he was always sleeping.
Legal analysts and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, condemned the sentence as unconstitutional and degrading.
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