MANY
Lagos residents have at one time or the other borne the brunt of indiscriminate
arrest and extortion by the police, the agency constitutionally empowered to
protect the populace. The fundamental human rights of Lagos residents are
not only being violated with impunity, the youth in particular are silently
bearing the greater burden of unwarranted harassment, arrest and extortion by
the police in the state. The orgy of recklessness and greed is quite troubling
and must be curbed. Often, laws are not enforced by the police in Lagos for the
sake of it, but mainly for extortion. This should be an issue of serious
concern to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko. The Lagos State
Governor, Babatunde Fashola, owes Lagos residents the responsibility to protect
and defend their rights from a repressive and corrupt police.
Last week,
a newspaper reported that a young man on an errand was unjustly arrested by the
police from the Ogudu Area Command at the Old Toll Gate area of Lagos in broad
daylight (12.33pm). A woman, whose brother had suffered the same fate a few
days earlier and had tried to come to his rescue by asking why he was being
arrested, was promptly rewarded with a slap.
In
another wanton display of abuse of power, policemen arrested many innocent
Nigerians in different parts of Oshodi on May 2 for “wandering” and other minor
offences. One hundred and sixty-two of them were jailed by the Lagos State
Special Offences Court sitting in Alausa, with no legal defence available to
them before they were hastily tried and imprisoned. Some of them, who had
proper identification, were nabbed while returning from work but found
themselves later in Kirikiri Prisons, where they will spend a minimum of 90
days!
One of
those affected, a clothes-seller named Ben Odimegwu, 19, lamented, “I had just
finished packing my clothes at about 10pm and was about going home when I saw
some people running away from task force officials. I was arrested with many
others and taken to Alausa. When we were taken to the court, they read our
offences to us. I did not even understand what they read. I pleaded guilty
thinking that they would leave me. Every other person in my batch also pleaded
guilty. I didn’t know it would land me here (Kirikiri) because I had never been
to court before.” This is really reprehensible.
At the
root of this malfeasance is corruption. The Nigeria Police is notoriously
corrupt as many local and international reports have confirmed. Reports by the
Human Rights Watch, the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and
Labour and Transparency International have returned damning verdicts on
policing in Nigeria. The US Bureau, for instance, declared in May 2012, “Police
routinely stopped drivers who did not commit traffic infractions, refusing to
allow them to continue until they paid bribes. The Office of the
Inspector-General of Police attempted to strengthen the Police Monitoring Unit,
which was charged with visiting police stations to search officers for signs of
accepting bribes; however, the unit remained ineffective and made no arrests by
year’s end.” Indeed, the 2012 Presidential Civil Society Organisation Panel on
Police Reform in Nigeria found that corruption is still the number one
impediment to the effective performance of police functions.
It is
an irresponsible government that will continue to treat its own citizens like
dogs, as that is what the current practice by the police strongly suggests. If
the nation can treat foreigners, including the Iranians and the three Lebanese
charged with allegedly importing arms and ammunition illegally into the country
with dignity, by not handcuffing them when they appeared in court, it is
impermissible for the system to be hounding, arresting and jailing innocent
Nigerians for flimsy reasons. Every Nigerian deserves to be treated fairly and
with dignity, as Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, states.
It
should be made clear that the obnoxious “wandering law” security agents hid
under in the past to commit atrocities was abrogated in 1989. Properly replaced
by “Minor Offences (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act”, the new law states, “a
person shall not be accused of or charged with the offence of wandering (by
whatever name called); or a person who is accused of a simple offence shall
not, by reason only of being accused of such offence, be detained in police or
prison custody.” But under the pretence of enforcing laws on “obstruction,”
“breach of (the) peace,” being a “disorderly person,” and clamping down on
crime, the police in Lagos have been acting above the law. This has had grave
consequences for innocent residents, who are often minors (those under the age
of 18 and can’t be jailed) sent on errands by their parents or guardians. As a
result, many innocent, “voiceless souls” are suffering in silence. Reckless
arrest and jailing of innocent and perhaps minor offenders have the potential
of turning otherwise law-abiding citizens to criminals. The police are,
therefore, liable as they are acting in breach of the law.
This
impudence must stop forthwith. All those arrested and are being held
unjustly in the overcrowded prison system should have their cases reviewed
expeditiously. Both the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, and
Manko must address this culture of impunity. There is a grave need to put in
place a system that will drastically reduce the abuse of people’s rights and
graft by the police. Fashola, himself a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, should look
into the workings of the Lagos special offences law and the various task forces
so that the arrests of innocent people and those that commit minor infractions
will not compound the overcrowding in our prisons. It also behoves the Nigeria
Bar Association to institute a pro bono system to help out those being arrested
and jailed by reckless law enforcement officers.
A Punch Newspapers editorial
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