Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, faulted the arrest and detention of Hausa singer, Sarfilu Umar Zarewa, better known as Sufin Zamani, by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS). The group in a statement issued by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, described the action as an affront to the constitutionally guaranteed human rights of the detained musician. HURIWA said if anybody feels that his song has labelled them, let such person Institute a civil suit and not to resort on the use of the Department of State Services to resolve such a civil matter. The group recalled that Zarewa was reported by authorities of the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN) for putting out a record titled ‘Matan Fim Ba Sa Zaman Aure’. The title of the song according to HURIWA suggested that “Northern actresses don’t stay in a marriage.” In a statement signed by Al-Amin Ciroma, the national public relations officer of MOPPAN, the association said a complaint letter was written to it by Wasila Isma’il, the veteran actress, on behalf of other women in the industry. It said they demanded justice from the leadership of the association over a record done by Zarewa. The statement also quoted Wasila as saying that the women felt insulted by the lyrics of the song. MOPPAN stated that Ahmad Sarari, the national president of MOPPAN, thereafter ordered an investigation to be carried out. HURIWA, however condemned the arrest of the Musician by the Department of State Services and has asked the Director-General of the Department of State Services Alhaji Yusuf Magagi Bichi to order his officers to free the illegally detained musician forthwith and profusely apologise to him over the flagrant violation of his human rights. “In as much as he did not name any particular actress in the said song, arresting him for manifesting and celebrating the fruits of his creative tendencies and talents amounts to anti-intellectualism, unconstitutional, illegal and primitive,” the group added.

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