Nigeria News
Nigerian Police And Arbitrary Charge
By Apata Akinsemoyin Mukaila
Fellow Nigerians, whether we like to admit it or not, we have a group of untrained and ill-equipped, intensely corrupt persons of questionable competence and doubtful integrity charged with responsibility of prevention and detection of crime. This assertion does not need any probing question. We all know it. Police should be advised that “Don’t’ take a case to court unless you are sure you have concluded your investigations and have very huge chances of securing a conviction”.
At this juncture, I must express my displeasure against the abuse which has worsened of late and inundating so many courts and the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) with cases of nonsensical nature like arbitrary charges of armed robbery, murder, kidnapping, etc.
It is high time government called the police to order and cautioned the police against arbitrary arrest of individuals on the streets or in their respective houses on spurious grounds in which the release of the victims are normally secured with payment of money, otherwise they will be charged with trumped-up criminal offences. The amount requested from their victims depends on the level of the alleged offence.
It is common nowadays to see people being arrested for armed robbery in order for the police to demand for a very huge amount ranging from N150,000 upward, and where you cannot meet up with their demand, you will be charged to court on holding charge of armed robbery unsupported by any evidence whatsoever and requested the court to remand you in prison custody pending the DPP Legal advice. This is one of the factors responsible for prison congestion.
This arbitrary charge is very common nowadays and no official action was ever taken against the erring policemen despite the frequency with which most of these cases are being thrown out in courts for want of evidence or lack of diligent prosecution coupled with so many cases thrown out by the DPP on the ground that no prima facie case has been established against the suspects. But the suspects would have already suffered untold hardship in prison custody for several years or months before their release without compensation.
Restructuring the police force to meet the challenges of the global best practices is long overdue. As situation is now, there is urgent need to check the rot and unethical practices in the police by sanctioning any officers that charge people to court arbitrarily simply because they refused to pay the bribe demanded by the police. Records of decisions on such complaints should also be kept and periodically released to the media and interested members of the public to keep them informed about what the police are doing about officers’ misconduct. This is absolutely necessary now, in order to encourage public familiarity with the police and address their grievances and conflicts before they are expressed in violence and confrontation with the police.
For a person(s) to be charged for armed robbery, the following ought to be considered; “That a person commits robbery if in the course of taking any property of another person from his person or immediate presence and against his will, such person threatens or uses force against any person with intent either to coerce surrender of property or to prevent resistance to such person taking or retaining it”.
While armed robbery requires proof of the following two things: first, “that a person committed robbery” and secondly; that a person or an accomplice was armed with a deadly weapon, simulated deadly weapon, firearm or used or threatened to use a deadly weapon, simulated deadly weapon dangerous instruments.
Proof beyond a reasonable doubt, therefore, is proof of such a convincing character that you would be willing to rely and act upon it without hesitation. However, it does not mean an absolute certainty. The standard that must be met by the prosecution’s evidence in a criminal prosecution is that no other logical explanation can be derived from the facts except that the accused committed the crime, thereby overcoming the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
A proof having been met if there is no plausible reason to believe otherwise. If there is a real doubt, based upon reason and common sense after careful and impartial consideration of all the evidence, or lack of evidence, in a case, then the level of proof has not been met.
The purpose of transferring a case of armed robbery to the state CIDs or Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) is to investigate to the extent necessary to confirm or dispel the original complaint or suspicion.
This requirement serves to prevent individuals from lodging complaints arbitrarily based merely on hunches or unfounded suspicions.
If the investigation confirms the officer’s initial suspicion or reveals evidence that would justify continued detention of the suspect(s), the officer may require the person detained to remain in detention by charging him to court on holding charge and request for his remand in prison custody until further investigation is complete. In some cases, the investigation may develop sufficient evidence to constitute probable cause.
We should bear in mind that the necessity of proof always lies with the person who lays charges. But if the initial investigation of the person arrested dispels suspicion of criminal activity the officer must end the detention and allow the person to go about his or her business.
Unfortunately here in Nigeria, in most cases, these standards are not met; they are based simply on mere suspicion and that is why the police have unwittingly established for themselves the notorious reputation of being a sadistic organisation. As a result, thousands of innocent persons are in prison custody today, awaiting the DPP legal advice. Why are they in prison custody in the first place? They are arraigned in court on holding charge of armed robbery, murder, or kidnapping, without any evidence. And what happens next: based on the police request, the court then orders their remand in prison custody pending the DPP’s legal advice. In most cases, the allegations are not sufficiently proved to meet the required standard of proof beyond all reasonable doubt in a criminal case. At times, some of the suspects die in prison custody, while some contract serious diseases. The families that experienced these unfortunate events are yet to recover from the loss of their innocent loved ones. No compensation, no apology.
Example of cases in which I am privy to are: COP VS: Fatai Alade and 15 others; COP VS: JELIL ADENIRAN and 2 others; COP VS Raheem Eletu and 6 others; Chinedu Godwin and one other; STATE VS: Ifeanyi Okeke and 6 others. Some of these cases were arbitrary charges of armed robbery and murder simply because their parents could not meet up with the demand of police, they were subsequently charged, but the matter was thrown out based on insufficient evidence after the suspects had suffered in detention. Others are State Vs: Sikiru Saka; COP Vs: Yusuf Sholanke; COP VS: Antonia Afolabi, etc. These few examples are among arbitrary charges of murder in which the accused were remanded and later released based on the ground that the police failed to prove the cases beyond reasonable doubt. These examples are just a tip of the iceberg, The truth is that, police in the first instance did not mean to prosecute the case but were only embarking on politics of deception to frame someone up with the aim of extorting money from their relatives. Police knew in advance that there was not enough evidence to implicate them; but because they failed to pay the amount demanded, they are roped in. Clearly these incidents are among those that have left public perception of the police force substantially dented or worse still, damaged.
The type of police we need is the police force that is committed to the enforcement of law and order; to protect life and property and to serve with integrity. It must be efficient and more responsive to operational needs and be able to prevent and detect crimes. It must grow with the development of the nation. It must have an intelligence section with analyst whose task is to identify and predict criminal threat. Unless Nigerian police can do that, Nigerian Police fails in its function and declines in its dignity and value.
Another horrible example I wish to bring to the attention of the Nigerian populace, is the current tricks being used by the police to ensure that innocent suspects are charged with armed robbery. In this country today, it is very easy to allege a case of armed robbery or kidnapping against any person whom you want to be detained for several years without DPP legal advice. All police needs do is to abuse section 264(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos state 2011 which says: A person arrested for an indictable offence may be brought before a magistrate for remand and the magistrate is empowered to remand such a person for a period not exceeding 30 days, if the request form file by the police shows probable cause.
In most cases, the request for detention form is full of spurious information by indicating in the “Grounds for the remand form” that; Confessional statement was made, whereas the statement was written for the accused persons by the police and the person forced to sign through torture or under duress; That the suspects were identified by the victim; meanwhile the identification parade was conducted in contravention of the due process of the law; That offensive weapon(s) was found in custody or in the possession of the accused; meanwhile nothing was found and in some cases, a cutlass will be presented as weapons found.
At the date of arraignment, the plea will not be taken from the accused person(s), and no questions whatsoever, and the next thing is for the magistrate to approve the request for remand and the accused person will be remanded in prison custody pending the legal advice. The result of this holding charge is that the suspect(s) can be remanded in prison custody more or less indefinitely in a legal limbo based on little more than mere suspicion of criminal activity without any evidence. A situation that can endure for a decade and beyond which severely punishes the innocent person(s).
To further extend your stay in prison, police will not forward your case file to DPP on time; they might keep the file for another two years before forwarding it. This is why some people are in prison custody for years without legal advice, thereby contributing to prison congestion.
An example is a charge No: CR/MISC/B/26/2011. COP VS: BELLO GBENGA AND FOUR OTHERS. These suspects were arraigned before Magistrate’s Court 2 , Ikeja presided over by Mrs. A. O. Komolafe on 9 November, 2011 and their file was never forwarded for DPP advice until 2013, two years later. Can you imagine this? There are other incidents like this and a disturbing aspect of this matter is the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for this nonsense. This is one of the factors that delay the issuance of legal advice by the DPP, thereby contributing significantly to the extremely high number of individuals in Lagos prisons who have not been formally charged.
Our prison is a place where human beings are held in appalling condition with many of the detainees have been awaiting trial for years. The appalling condition breeds terrible illnesses such as tuberculosis, etc. leading to death in some cases. Shockingly, cases files are either missing or hidden like the one earlier mentioned. Many detainees suffer serious illness and are often not treated.
Police do not discipline or sanction their officers for whatever wrongs they do. This is why police have been inflicting pains and punishing innocent citizens without batting an eyelid, without fearing the consequence of their actions.
If you complain against police action, in few instances the police authorities refer some of the complaints for investigation but this never results in punishment of the officers that violate human rights or crime simply because they have godfathers in the force. Invariably, the complaints grind to a halt in the face of obvious lack of police co-operation compounded by a clear lack of will to hold them accountable. Yet nobody is calling police to order!.
However, the key to stamping out various prevalent crimes on the part of the police would ultimately depend on government firmness and insistence that offenders should be made to pay the price. Old and bad habits die-hard. If the efforts against the abuse of power are to remain convincing in the police, sanction must be swift and severe. The price to be paid for abuse of office must be raised so high that only the foolhardy would dare not to be compliant.
An unruly dog, if not securely chained to its own kernel, is prone to wonder into places where it ought not to be. To reposition the police and our armed forces to uphold the rule of law in all their actions and decisions, the government is hereby advised to establish an independent Complaint Commission (ICC). It should be a special prosecutorial organisation to ensure accountability for complaint of human rights abuse or criminal behaviour by the police. The outfit should be headed by a serving or retired justice.
The commission’s function among others is to make sure that complaints received against police infractions are dealt with effectively and also to set standard for how police should handle complaints and the practices reviewed from time to time. They are to investigate allegation of brutality or torture, extra-judicial killing and related crimes or misconduct by law enforcement officers against any member of the public. The commission should undertake regular monitoring, inspection, and visitation of police cells and any misdeed noted or observed should be addressed squarely.
The commission shall be empowered to conduct trial and pronounce punishments ranging from fine, demotion in ranks, suspension, or outright dismissal or refer the errant officers for criminal trial in court on any proven case.
If we can painstakingly diagnose these suggested remedies, then the war against law enforcement abuse will be as good as won.
•Akinsemoyin wrote from ADROIT Foundation For Public Liberty and Human Rights,Lagos.
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
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