Torture,blood and controversy:The  story  of

Kaduna's brutalized ACN senatorial candidate

Tue March 29,2011

Her ambition was to be a Senator of the Federal Republic in the forthcoming political dispensation. So, Hajia Halima Aminu, wife of late Turakin Zazzau and ace broadcaster, Aminu Tijani pitched her tent with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to actualise her dream. But when it became obvious that she stood no chance there and there was a vacancy in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), she decided to ditch the CPC and join the ACN. She thus became the only candidate contesting the position on the platform of the party. She became the candidate and her name was submitted by the party to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). But little did she know that that action will bring her lots of trouble. First, she was attacked at the party’s national secretariat by persons suspected to be party thugs for refusing to give up her mandate. It was gathered that the source of her problem at the moment, which has led her to the hospital on two occasions is  the attempt to collect the party’s ticket from her and give it to another person by the leadership of the party in the state.

A National officer of the party confessed that Hajia Halima’s name was submitted to INEC, adding that “I am not aware of her name being substituted at any point in time. But we are waiting to see whose name is on the INEC list”.  However, on the eve of the party’s presidential campaign rally in Kaduna, there were reports that the state Chairman of the party, Barrister Musa Soba fainted after inhaling tear gas unleashed on him by Hajia Halima. She was said to have gone to the party secretariat to insist on her mandate. But she revealed to our reporter that she went to the party secretariat to pick up copies of the programme of event for the Presidential campaign rally. Looking beaten and dazed with multiple bruises on her face, she said denied pouring tear gas on Soba saying “I will ask you maybe you may be in the position to tell me more.  What is tear gas? Is it something that a lay man can lay his hands on? I am not a police officer neither am I a military person.So where do I get that substance from? If he alleged that I threw tear gas to anybody or him, there were so many people there at that time and tear gas is not something that affects one person, it is something that affects everybody that is within that place at that time”.

Even though Soba told our reporter that the woman poured tear gas in his face, there  was no evidence to suggest that any other person was affected by the tear gas apart from him. According to him, party loyalists who were present at the scene of the event arrested the woman and detained her after she poured the tear gas on his face. In his words, “this woman came to my office in jeans and shirt in the presence of Journalists because I was holding a meeting in preparation for the presidential rally the following day. She started abusing me and later pulled out a tear gas canister from her own pocket and sprayed the substance on my face. At the end of the day, I cannot say what happened because I rushed into my toilet trying to wash off the substance and it took me one good hour to open my eyes. She was arrested by party loyalists and detained pending the time I will recover and then handed over to the police. So, whatever transpired after she sprayed the substance on my face, I wouldn’t know”.

Soba denied ordering people to beat her up saying “I wouldn’t know, but you see, everyone has the right to arrest anybody who is found to have committed a crime. So there is no how she could have come into my office, assault me and expected to go free without being arrested. This is what our loyalists did by arresting her, detaining her pending the arrival of the police. They handed her over to the police when they came. That is exactly what happened and nothing else”.

The unanswered question however is, how did she get the bruises on her face and body?

He also claimed to have rushed to his toilet to wash the substance off his face when he could not open his eyes for almost one hour. Even though it was gathered that he was said to have fainted when the substance was poured on him, Soba said he went to wash his face before going to the police headquarters to write his report. He also claimed that the woman could not have come to his office to collect programme of event since they were not on speaking terms.

Narrating her ordeal, she said “On Thursday, March 10, 2011, at about 10:30am, I got a call from the state secretariat of the party to come and collect the program of event for the Kaduna Presidential campaign taking place the following day and I went there in company of the Mobile Policeman that was assigned to me from Abuja in view of the first attack on me in Abuja. I did not go there with the intension of quarrelling or fighting anybody and that was why I was alone. Don’t forget that I am still with one hand following the initial attack on me in Abuja which I am yet to fully recover from. I met them at a meeting and told them that I came to collect the program of event for the following day. It is not a place I go very often because of the first incidence and so, I tried to keep off from them. I went to the chairman’s office where I met about ten other people. I greeted them and told the chairman that I came to collect the program of events.

He asked which program and I said for tomorrow’s presidential flag-off. He told me that I was not their candidate. I said well, even if am not your candidate, at least I am still a member of the party and so, I am entitle to the program. At that point, he started calling me names saying you are a prostitute, you forged your certificates, you are a 419 and all sorts of names. Of course I replied by telling him that all he has been saying is a lie, that he is rather the 419 because his nick name I learnt is law breaker and so if your nickname right from school is a law breaker, what does that indicate? Are you a gentle man, the next thing I had from my back was a slap on my neck and I turned around and asked why the person slapped me? He replied, why should you insult the chairman? Another person stood up again and slapped me and the next thing I heard from the chairman was an order for them to lock the door, beat her and kill her. We’ve been asking  you, Sha’ban has begged you to relinquish this position to MS Ibrahim, but you refused. We have talked to you and you refused and you don’t even have money, you can’t even bring a box talk less of a ballot box. At that point, they started beating me and I started screaming for help. Then, there was a bang on the door. It was Operation Yaki. One of them said to me, Hajiya run and he took me by my left hand and I ran after him. They took me to the police headquarters from where I was taken to the hospital where I spent five days”.

Narrating his own encounter with the woman, Soba  said that the claims  by the Hajiya were false, adding that she was only using the issue of attack to gain sympathy. According to him, “She couldn’t have come to my office to collect programme of event because we have not been in talking terms since the first week of February and so had no business coming to my office on a peace mission. She was dressed in such a way that when I saw her, I knew that she came to make trouble, only that I didn’t know how the trouble will start. So to say that she came to collect programme of event when she knew that I was never with her is not true. I was not with her because we were able to detect that her credentials were forged and not because she is a woman or because she does not have money to contest an election. Money is not the issue in everything. We support our party’s ideology towards supporting the women and making them self sustaining and promoting them to win election. But we will not do that to the detriment of our own reputation or on the alter of the good name we have built for ourselves over the years. In the name of presenting a woman to contest election, we cannot just go and look for women who are morally bankrupt, women who are criminally minded as exhibited by this woman. So, she came purposely to attack me and she did it not only in the presence of party members, but in the presence of Journalists I called to brief the next day on what will happen the next day during the presidential campaign rally’’.

So, it is not purely an ACN affair, but she did it in the presence of strangers. We don’t gain anything by cooking up stories against the woman. So, all her stories are lies, but a all bordere on the fact that I have exposed her and now she wants to extract her own pound of flesh”.  Soba claimed that the problem between the two of them was the issue of her qualification to contest the elections, pointing out that the certificates being paraded by the woman were forged, saying “that woman is fake”. Soba gave our reporter a copy of the petition he wrote to the party’s national secretariat in addition to what he claimed were the woman’s certificates that he believed were forged. In the petition dated March 2, 2011, he claimed that Hajia Halima never had any certificates since she has disposed to several affidavits to that effect. He said noted that she fabricated the story that she attacked at Abuja to blackmail the leadership of the party in Kaduna state “and avoid being asked about her original certificates to clearify issues bordering on inconsistencies in her school certificates”. He said further that “she claimed to have attended Oboshi Grammar School, Ibusa in the old Bendel state in 1976 with the name  Osamor, Felicia Iwebunor. In another certificate from the same Oboshi Grammer School. Ibusa, she bears Miss Osamor Felicia dated 1977 from the old Mid-Western state of Nigeria.”

A close study of the two certificates tends to confirm Soba’s claim that the certificates may be questionable. For example, her school leaving certificate and testimonial with number 000111 indicated that one Osamor Felicia Iwebunor was admitted into Oboshi Grammar School, Ibusa, Bendel state in September 1972 and completed her studies in June 1976. Another “secondary School leaving certificate issued from the same school on February 23, 1977 suggested that Oboshi Grammar School was situated in Mid-Western state of Nigeria”. The certificate suggested that she was admitted into the school in class four and left after completing her class five, which is a period of four years as against the earlier claim in another certificate. Interestingly, as at 1977, Mid-West was no longer a state in Nigeria.The name was changed in 1976 after state creation by the Murtala Mohammed administration. It was not clear however, how she came about the certificate bearing 1977 from Midwestern state of Nigeria.

But Hajia Halima defended her certificates saying “first and foremost, the state chairman claimed that as at the time I had my secondary school certificate, there was nothing called Bendel. Everybody knows that it was during Babangida regime that Bendel was separated, so there was Bendel where I went to School and the school still exists. He also claimed that the name I was bearing during my secondary school period is not what I am bearing now. As a woman, I got married to a Muslim and had to convert to Islam. Automatically I will bear my husband’s name and that is why if you see my posters, it always carries my father’s name in the middle ‘Hajiya Halima Aminu  Osamor Turaki Tijani because I knew someday, I will be asked where I come from which am very proud of. I was born and brought up in Zaria, I have lived all my life in Zaria. I went to school in Bendel which is now Delta, so that is for the name. He also said I went to the university lately which I am proud of”.

However, there were allegations from party sources that the state Chairman collected the senatorial seat from Hajia Halima and sold it for N3 million. When the INEC initial list was published with Halima’s name on the list, MS Ibrahim was said to have protested to him and insisted on collecting back his money. But Ibrahim who is currently a member of the House of Representative could not be reached for his reaction as at the time of this report as he was out on a campaign tour of the senatorial district. But Soba denied this allegation saying “this allegation is also false because it is supposed to be the buyer that is supposed to tell the people that I have bought the ticket and not a supposed victim who felt aggrieved. They can as well say I sold the ticket for N100 million, I don’t care as long as I know that I am doing the right thing for the party looking for credible candidates who will

win elections. It is not for her to come out and say, I  sold her own ticket. She should respond to the issue that she is not qualified to contest that election because she does not have the minimum requirement and the question stops there. She should tell the world whether she is qualified to contest, but we are saying she is not qualified. So, the issue of saying I sold the ticket to another person does not even arise because with or without the supposed buyer, we will never have given her that ticket. Instead of spending our money looking for credible candidates, somebody is going round to say we have sold the ticket. Sold it to who?

Interview with Hajia Halima Aminu Osamor Turaki Tijani

It has been alleged that you went to the state secretariat of your party, the Action

Congress of Nigeria and used substance suspected to be tear gas on the party

Chairman. What is your reaction?

 First, I will ask you maybe you may be in the position to tell me more.  What is tear gas? Is it something that a lay man can lay his hands on? I am not a police officer neither am I a military person. So where do I get that substance from? If he alleged that I threw tear gas to anybody or him, there were so many people there at that time and tear gas is not something that affects one person, it is something that affects everybody that is within that place at that time.

What actually happened when you went to the party secretariat?

On Thursday, March 10, 2011, at about 10:30am, I got a call from the state secretariat of the party to come and collect the program of event for the Kaduna Presidential flag off of our Presidential candidate. I went there in company of the Mobile Policeman that was assigned to me from Abuja in view of the first attack on me in Abuja. I went to office in company of the policeman attached to me, but when we got there, they ordered him to go down stairs because he is not allowed to stay there with his gun. I did not go there with the intension of quarrelling or fighting anybody and that was why I was alone. Don’t forget that I am still with one hand following the initial attack on me in Abuja which I am yet to fully recover from. When I got there, I met them at a meeting and told them that I came to collect the program of event for the following day. It is not a place I go very often because of the first incidence and so, I tried to keep off from them. The Public Relations Officer told me to go to the chairman’s office to collect the programme because he had them with him. I went to the chairman’s office where I met about ten other people. I greeted them and told the chairman that I came to collect the program of events. He asked which program and I said for tomorrow’s presidential flag-off. He told me that I was not their candidate. I said well, even if am not your candidate, at least I am still a member of the party and so, I am entitle to the program. At that point, he started calling me names saying you are a prostitute, you forged your certificates, you are a 419 and all sorts of names. Of course I replied by telling him that all he has been saying is a lie, that he is rather the 419 because his nick name I learnt is law breaker and so if your nickname right from school is a law breaker, what does that indicates? Are you a gentle man, the next thing I had from my back was a slap on my neck and I turned around and asked why the person slapped me? He replied, why should you insult the chairman? Another person stood up again and slapped me and the next thing I had from the chairman was an order for them to lock the door, beat her and kill her. We’ve been asking you, Sha’ban has begged you to relinquish this position to MS Ibrahim, but you refused. We have talked to you and you refused and you don’t even have money, you can’t even bring a box talk less of a ballot box. At that point, they started beating me and I started screaming for help. Then, there was a bang on the door. It was Operation Yak. One of them said to me, Hajiya run and he took me by my left hand and I ran after him. They took me to the police headquarters from where I was taken to the hospital where I spent five days.

 Were there any witnesses you can remember when this incidence happened?

The witness I can remember is Fatima Ibrahim, she is even here, she came to see how am faring.

 Who is she, is she a party member?

No, she is not a party member, she came to sell something for me and at that time I was rushing to the party secretariat so she followed me so she is a living witness. You said, earlier that Police orderly was sent out. Where was he when all this things were happening and when Operation Yaki came, where was he?  Fatima who was an eye witness had to rush down stairs to tell him to organize for help. He wanted to come and rescue me, but she told him, you can’t because they so many and so, he quickly called the Operation Yaki.

 How many of them attacked you?

They were about 10 and I know them one by one by their faces. One of them is the organizing secretary of the party, Danlami Dabe and another one is Kuje the leader of the thugs, those are the ones I can remember by their names. If I see them I can definitely recognize their faces.

 An eye witness alleged that you came in furiously, rain abuses on the chairman and

brought out a substance described as concentrated tear gas which you sprayed the

chairman’s face and that they had to rush him to the bathroom.

There is a saying in Hausa that if he who speaks is a fool, he who listens is not a

fool. You should use your initiative to judge the story.  You can see me that up

till now, I have only one hand, which hand did I use to pull the tear gas on him. Is

tear gas something that only one person perceive? I don’t think so because from what

I know about tear gas, if you throw it, anybody within that vicinity will feel the

impact including me. So there was nothing of that sought.

The state chairman also alleged that all the papers you paraded are forged papers

bearing changed names with inconsistency of dates and so on, what can you say to

that effect?

Before this incidence, I was called to the party Headquarters at Abuja because of

this forgery issue and following a petition from the state chairman, Barrister

Muhammed Musa Soba who claimed that my papers were forged. I was given 48hours to

reply and I replied within 16-17 hours. But they were not satisfied claiming not to

have seen my response. So, they asked me to come to Abuja. We arrived Abuja before

10am. The ACN lawyer, deputy chairman and Organizing Secretary where all there and

they interviewed me and asked me about my papers which I presented one after the

other. First and foremost, the state chairman claimed that as at the time I had my

secondary school certificate, there was nothing called Bendel. Everybody knows that

it was during Babangida regime that Bendel was separated, so there was Bendel where

I went to School and the school still exists. He also claimed that the name I was

bearing during my secondary school period is not what I am

 bearing now. As a woman, I got married to a Muslim and had to convert to Islam.

Automatically I will bear my husband’s name and that is why if you see my posters,

it always carries my father’s name in the middle ‘Hajiya Halima Aminu  Osamor

Turaki Tijani because I knew someday, I will be asked where I come from which am

very proud of. I was born and brought up in Zaria, I have lived all my life in

Zaria. I went to school in Bendel which is now Delta, so that is for the name. He

also said I went to the university lately which I am proud of. When I came out as a

politician, I said to myself that I must to go back to school because I realised

that I need more education. The National Legal Secretary asked me the name of the

school I told him, he went through the internet goggled and saw the school and

asked the name I used which he also checked and saw on the internet and he asked if

I have followers which I answered yes because am the first person

 to come out for Senate in the central. At that time, there was nobody contesting

for the central Senatorial seat for ACN because if you know and remembered very

well, the popular party was the CPC and PDP. It was when I left CPC for ACN that I

came with my supporters and that was how Sha’ban and the rest followed suit after

being unsuccessful in CPC primaries, so I was there before any other person came

in.

You were attacked in Abuja and the police only gave you an escort without pressing

charges. You have been attacked again and the police merely took you to the hospital

and nobody was arrested.   Like I said earlier, this is my first time in politics and I don’t know the rules and regulations in politics. When the first incidence happened in the presence of the Inspector General of police; they asked me if I wanted to press charges?  My woman leader whom I respect very much and who has been very good to me, she said to me; Halima don’t press charges, this is an internal crisis and it is politics. She

said lets to me, leave it the way it is and that was why I did not press any

charges. It has happened again, what do you think? Is it something I will leave to

continue? My lawyer will decide the next line of my action. Women and youths are

already fighting my course youth.  The last time the incidence happened in Abuja, it was said that the position was been held for you by your woman leader and the story available to us now is that the position has been given to MS Muhammed, is that true and if it is true, what is your next line of action.

The allegation is not true in the sense that the last INEC list is yet to be out so we have to wait for the INEC list and see the last joker.

INTERVIEW WITH BARRISTER MOHAMMED MUSA SOBA, CHAIRMAN, ACN, KADUNA STATE

There is an allegation that sent thugs to beat up Hajia Halima Aminu Turaki who is

an aspirant in your party. What do you have to say to that?

The allegation is false. This woman was an aspirant and then we were able to detect

that her certificates are forged. Infact, all the certificates right from secondary

school to university level are forged. We wrote a petition to the National

Headquarters on this and they wrote to her, asking her to respond. Instead of doing

that, she said that I do not have the legal right to question her credentials and

the national secretariat took offence in this and told her that somebody is accusing

you of forging certificates and you are saying he does not have the right to do so.

At the end of the day, she was substituted on the ground that she does not have the

minimum requirement to contest an election. After some days, this woman came to my

office in jeans and shirt in the presence of Journalists because I was holding a

meeting in preparation for the presidential rally the following day. She started

abusing me and later pulled out a tear gas canister from her

 own pocket and sprayed the substance on my face. At the end of the day, I cannot

say what happened because I rushed into my toilet trying to wash off the substance

and it took my one good hour to open my eyes. She was arrested by party loyalists

and detained pending the time I will recover and then handed over to the police.

So, whatever transpired after she sprayed the substance on my face, I wouldn’t

know. All I can say is that they used reasonable force to arrest her and handed her

over to the police. We all went to the police headquarters where we made our

statements and asked to come back when she return from the hospital. From the

police headquarters, I went to the eye clinic for examination and it took me three

days for the pain of the substance she poured on my eyes to go. This campaign of

calumny and blackmail did not start from there. She had earlier complained that we

sent thugs to attack and assassinate her at Abuja and the national

 secretariat were very sympathetic because she is a woman claiming to be under

severe violence and the police ordered that she should be given a police escort.

She used the same police escort to come and attack me in my office. She claimed

that we attacked her and seized her credentials, but we were able to prove to the

national secretariat that she does not have the credentials she is claiming to

have. She cooked up this story because she knew that one day, she will be called

upon to make available the originals of her credentials. We proved to them that

this woman has swore to serial affidavit claiming that her certificates got burnt

or missing. We were able to identify that even her university certificate was

forged to the extent that she claimed to have finished her university education in

2009 while the date on the certificate is reading 2007 with visible signs of

alteration on the face of the certificate. We discovered that she bought that

 certificate in the open market at Yaba. She claimed to have a Masters degree in

public administration, but failed to supply evidence to support that claim. We

discovered that apart from saying that she finished from Green Hills University,

Denmark, this woman was circulating campaign leaflets all over the senatorial

district claiming that the degrees were obtained from Pacific University, in the

United States of America and not Green Hills University, Denmark. The summary of it

all is that this woman is fake. She wanted to deceive the entire work because she

does not have the minimum requirement to contest an election. She is cooking up the

story of attack in order to gain sympathy and from the beginning, we discovered

that the woman was a fraud.

You claimed she poured tear gas on your face.

Yes.

How did you know it was tear gas?

I was an officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for several years and I

used the same substance when I was in service. So, when she poured it, I knew what

she poured on my face. It was not difficult to trace what she poured on my face

because all the particles are there at the forensic lab right now for examination. I

suspected it to be tear gas, but it might end up being another thing all together. I

suspected it to be tear gas because I think I have an idea of what the substance is,

but at the end of the day, it is only forensic examination that will be able to

reveal the real substance. May be she thought she was carrying an acid; but I guess

it was a concentrated tear gas that she deliberately poured into my eyes maybe to

demobilize me in such a way that I will not be able to attend the presidential

rally.

But she claimed that she came to collect the programme of event and instead of

giving her the programme, you started abusing her.

She couldn’t have come to my office to collect programme of event because we have

not been in talking terms since the first week of February and so had no business

coming to my office on a peace mission. She was dressed in such a way that when I

saw her, I knew that she came to make trouble, only that I didn’t know how the

trouble will start. So to say that she came to collect programme of event when she

knew that I was never with her is not true. I was not with her because we were able

to detect that her credentials were forged and not because she is a woman or because

she does not have money to contest an election. Money is not the issue in

everything. We support our party’s ideology towards supporting the women and making

them self sustaining and promoting them to win election. But we will not do that to

the detriment of our own reputation or on the alter of the good name we have built

for ourselves over the years. In the name of presenting a

 woman to contest election, we cannot just go and look for women who are morally

bankrupt, women who criminally minded as exhibited by this woman. So, she came

purposely to attack me and she did it not only in the presence of party members,

but in the presence of Journalists I called to brief the next day on what will

happen the next day during the presidential campaign rally. So, it is not purely an

ACN affair, but she did it in the presence of strangers. We don’t gain anything by

cooking up stories against the woman. So, all her stories are lies, but are all

bothered on the fact that I have exposed her and now she want to extract her own

pound of flesh.

Who were these Journalists that were there?

Aliyu Garba and Mohammed Mahmud from KSMC, Kaduna.

Don’t you think there would have been a more peaceful was of resolving this issue of

the ticket rather than allowing it degenerate to this level?

The question of her substitution if not what degenerate to this level. It is about

exposing her and she felt that she must retaliate. When it comes to substitution, I

do not have any power to substitute anybody. It is all in the hands of the national

leadership of the party who saw reason as to why she should be substituted. How can

you send somebody without minimum qualification to contest an election or send the

person to contest a senatorial election? Even the councillorship election, that

woman is not fit to contest by virtue of the fact that she does not have the minimum

qualification to do so. It is the national leadership that substituted her

Are you saying that did not sell the ticket as being alleged?

This allegation is also false because it is supposed to be the buyer that is

supposed to tell the people that I have bought the ticket and not a supposed victim

who felt aggrieved. They can as well say I sold the ticket for N100 million, I don’t

care as long as I know that I am doing the right thing for the party looking for

credible candidates who will win elections. It is not for her to come out and say, I

sold her own ticket. She should respond to the issue that she is not qualified to

contest that election because she does not have the minimum requirement and the

question stops there. She should tell the world whether she is qualified to contest,

but we are saying she is not qualified. So, the issue of saying I sold the ticket to

another person does not even arise because with or without the supposed buyer, we

will never have given her that ticket. Instead of spending our money looking for

credible candidates, somebody is going round to say we have

 sold the ticket. Sold it to who?  The two of them came from the CPC where they

contested senatorial elections. In CPC, this same man won the ticket, but the party

decided to give it out to somebody else and he went to court. He came to us and we

said ok, withdraw your case from the court, forget about CPC and we will give you

the ticket because we believe in your ability to win the election and not because

your name is MS Ibrahim. We know your antecedent and what you have done,

withstanding the political rascality of the PDP and remain one of the people in the

opposition parties that refused to cross over to the PDP or compromise your

position. This is just the issue. We found in MS Ibrahim somebody who will surely

win the election. He is right now, a member of the House of Representatives

representing Kaduna North for the past eight years on the platform of ANPP. Ours is

purely based on what is good for our party and that is what we have done. So, the

 question of selling the ticket to somebody does not even arise, but part of the

campaign of calumny against the leadership of the party in the state by people who

do not even know what it takes to be in politics and does not have any political

relevance either in the state or across the country.

So, you are saying you don’t know how she got her bruises or who beat her up?

I wouldn’t know, but you see, everyone has the right to arrest anybody who is found

to have committed a crime. So there is no how she could have come into my office,

assault me and expected to go free without being arrested. This is what our

loyalists did by arresting her, detaining her pending the arrival of the police.

They handed her over to the police when they came. That is exactly what happened and

nothing else.  She claimed it was Operation Yaki that came to rescue her.

Who called the Operation Yaki?

We were the ones that called them because we know

that they are everywhere. We called them to come and pick her to the police

headquarters.

Where was her police orderly when all these were happening?

I wouldn’t say because when I didn’t see him and when she poured the substance on my

face, I went into the toilet and I told you that for almost in an hour, I could not

open my eyes. So, I am not even in a position to say what happened after she poured

the substance on my face. But I could hear the boys telling her that she will not go

until the police comes. Let me tell you that nobody has the license to come and

commit crime. A woman is like any other human being in Nigeria and has no right to

commit crime and if she decides to commit crime, she has lost the sympathy and right

of being a woman and will not be treated as a common criminal.