ACTING IGP URGED TO ENFORCE DIRECTIVE ON
DETAINNES' RIGHTS.

BY PATIENCE OGBO


Access to Justice, a non profit rights and justice reform organization in Lagos, has called on the new acting Inspector General of Police Mohammed Dikko Abubakar to ensure that police officers adhere strictly to his recent directive on the pre-trial rights of detainees as it relates to arraignment and release within 24 hours of crime suspects.
Leonard Dibia the Director of programme stated this in a press statement titled “The sales of liberty and the police detention business Plc--- How far can the new IGP directive go?”



“This directive issued by the acting IGP, Mr. Muhammed Abubakar, appears to “hit the bulls eye” on a major rule of law challenge that has defied intense corrective advocacy in policing ethics and practices since democratic re-start in 1999. Salutary and commendable as this directive is, the major challenge centers around translating its terms into concrete and corrective reality.

Nothing short of a committed implementation would do in the circumstance; especially as the tentacles of the racket of corruption associated with unlawful detention and bail in police stations has achieved such monstrous dimensions that has rendered sections 35 (4) and (5) of the 1999 Constitution a laughable dead letter. No other phenomena seems to have made a mockery of constitutional democracy and civil liberties than the pandemic abuse of police powers of detention and the impunity that has belied the denial of crime suspects of their right to arraignment before a court of law within 24 hours of arrest and detention or, where the circumstance warrants, an outright release.”Mr. Dibia said

Mr. Dibia also urged the IGP to check gross abuses of detainees and suspects at the State Anti-robbery Squad SARS Ikeja, Adeniji Adele police and State CID Panti Police stations.

” A little insight into the bail system in SARS Ikeja, Adeniji Adele and State CID Panti Police Stations explains the anomaly by which a police corporal who earns below N30, 000 monthly rides and comfortably maintains a 2011 Model Prado Jeep. The secret is inexorably tied to the diabolical racket of the use of police powers of detention/bail money. A corollary to this practice is the malicious arraignment of crime suspects in court (without evidence or proof) as punishment for failing to pay bail money.

AJ’s research which concluded in October, 2011, revealed that a number of awaiting trial inmates who were on remand custody was only maliciously arraigned on “holding charge” (without evidence of the crime) as punishment for not meeting the monetary terms of bail.” Mr. Dibia said.

Mr. Dibia added that human rights and justice reform organizations have persistently drawn the attention of the government to the misuse of power by the police to no avail. “Researches by both local and international agencies spanning between 1999 and 2011 (by Access to Justice, Human Rights Watch, Open Society Justice Initiative, Amnesty International and UN Rapporteurs to Nigeria for 2006 and 2007) not only reveals the invidious use by the police of its powers of detention to foster an entrenched culture of extortion, corruption and egregious practices of psychological torture, they unanimously portray a well commercialized trade where the transaction is “investigative detention”, the article is “bail” and the currency is “raw money”. Research reveals that the practice of putting bail for sale is not just the act of one derelict officer who may pass for “one bad apple” among the bunch, but an entrenched practice to which every officer in the strata of the average police station is complicit – from the DPO to the newest constable.

As a way of enforcing the directive, the acting IGP should ensure that “Every stage of the inter-face between a crime suspect and his IPO, the pre-trial rights of the suspect is observed as matter of law. Our expectation focuses on how many investigating police officers (IPOs), DPOs and DCOs will face internal and administrative discipline for unlawful and extortionate pre-trial detention practices. Anything short of committed enforcement would not do. As promised by the acting IGP,

It will be fitting to see a well-delineated and institutionalized monitoring mechanism for enforcing compliance and penalizing violations of his directive. In this regard, there may be need to re-define and empower the Office of the Force Provost Marshall towards departing from its present clay-footed stature, into becoming a compliance-monitoring unit with self-actuating inspectorial powers over police detention facilities, and with ample summary disciplinary powers to demand accountability for prolonged and unlawful detention from IPOs, DPOs and DCOs.” Mr. Dibia said.