Director General, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Mr Aliyu Abubakar has described the police as the highest contributor to prison congestion in the country, calling for a radical shift in the way arrest and investigation is being conducted.
Speaking in Ibadan, on Wednesday, during a courtesy call on the Oyo #EndSARS panel, Abubakar bemoaned that various prison decongestion efforts continue to record minimal success because for every one person taken out of the prison, the police takes into custody another set of at least three persons.
Abubakar bemoaned that the police continued to flout constitutional provision of not detaining people beyond 24 hours through wanton indiscriminate arrests, illegal detentions.
As against the usual practice of rounding up everyone within the vicinity of a suspected crime, Abubakar urged the police to take a cue from developed countries who trail suspects till they have concrete evidence to make arrest and prosecute.
The Legal Aid Council boss noted that over 70 percent of those in prison were awaiting trial and urged security agents to carry out diligent investigation before making arrests.
To reverse what he described as a pathetic trend, Abubakar urged government to focus on reorientation and reformation of the Nigerian police on how they carry out arrest and investigation.
Abubakar said, “The issue of criminal justice administration in this country is a pathetic story because of the disposition of our security agents.
“If you go to Agodi prisons, for instance, I can tell you that up to 70 percent of those there are people awaiting trial.
“This is pathetic because some of them will have spent so many years awaiting trial and this is travesty of justice because it is trite law that justice delayed is justice denied.
“But the funny thing about our situation is that some of them have spent so many years such that if they had been convicted by the law court, based on the offences they have committed, some of them will have left there.
“The unfortunate thing about some of them is that there is no record of the offence they have committed and they are just dumped there.
We have to have a radical shift in the way and manner arrest and investigation are conducted in this country and the principal actor is the Nigerian police.
“Other detaining authorities are also guilty but the Nigerian police has the highest number because they deal with the society on a daily basis.
“It is so bad that despite what Legal Aid Council and other lawyers are doing to decongest our prisons, despite committees going round the country to decongest our prisons, the truth is that the success you can achieve is minimal.
“This is because as you are bringing 10 people out of prison, the police is dumping 30 or 40 people. With such manner, you cannot make any progress.
“Apart from the fact that they do indiscriminate arrest, they also do not follow the constitutional provision which states that if within 24 hours after arrest you can’t take a suspect to court, you release him on bail.
They need to obey.
“Not only won’t they release the person, they will not listen to anybody and when you try to explain constitutional provision, they tell you they are still investigating.
“Again they can go to the magistrate court, file in papers, tell the court that someone is being suspected of committing a crime and the court grants an order to keep the person for more than 24 hours.
“This is a simple constitutional provision that should be followed. But no, they will not release you on bail, they will not go to court to secure authority to continue to hold you and if nobody comes to bail you out, they dump you in prison and only God knows how long you’ll stay there.
“So the essential thing is that we have to beg the Nigerian police and policy makers should make it a duty to beg government to reorient the Nigerian police.”
Supporting the position of the Legal Aid Council boss, Chairman, Oyo Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality, Justice Badejoko Adeniji (rtd.), also called for reformation, reorientation of the Nigerian police.
Pointing to her experience while in service, Adeniji decried that the police continued to incarcerate several people for no just reason.
She noted that the setting up of #EndSARS panels across the country was evidence of the various atrocities committed by police personnel across the country.
She also pointed to her personal experience, noting that both the low and high in the society had suffered police brutality.
Among other members of the Oyo #EndSARS panel present during the visit included Special Adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde on Political Matters and Strategy, Mr Babatunde Oduyoye; Secretary of the panel, Mr H.T. Salami; former President, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Ibadan branch, Professor Johnson Akintayo; Officer in Charge, Legal, Oyo State, Mrs Olufolakemi Ogundele.
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