ON THE PRACTICE OF NIGERIAN POLICE PARADING SUSPECTS BEFORE MEDIA – A LOOK AT ITS LEGALITY OR NOT
July 9, 2021 | News
When the Lagos State House of Assembly recently passed an amended version of the Criminal Justice Law of the State, barring the Police from parading suspects before the media henceforth, I thought it necessary to take a critical look at this issue, and for us to understand why it has become a practice,
-By Zik Gbemre
ON THE PRACTICE OF NIGERIAN POLICE PARADING SUSPECTS BEFORE MEDIA – A LOOK AT ITS LEGALITY OR NOT
Is it lawful for Nigeria Police to parade suspects?…
While some Police Authorities say it helps to create credibility for the police, assure the public that their job has been done, and "douse tension" in the society… the majority of Nigerian lawyers however do not agree because according to them it violates Section 36, subsections 5 of the amended 1999 Constitution…
Others are of the view that, with the level of impunity with regards to crime, conduct and indiscipline, and I would like to add, the unreliability of the system in a society like ours… I really do not see anything wrong with this practice…”
When the Lagos State House of Assembly recently passed an amended version of the Criminal Justice Law of the State, barring the Police from parading suspects before the media henceforth, I thought it necessary to take a critical look at this issue, and for us to understand why it has become a practice, and whether the reasons why it being practiced are justifiable and legitimate, or not.
According to reports, Section 9 (A) of the said bill, which was passed after a voice vote at a sitting of the Lagos State House of Assembly, states that the Police must from the commencement of the law refrain from parading any suspect before the media. The bill, which also stipulates conditions under which the Police can arrest without warrant, states that a person must be reasonably suspected to be unlawfully be in possession of firearms or other such dangerous instruments. A subsection of the passed bill also noted that: “A suspect should be accorded humane treatment, with the right to dignity of person; not to be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment; be brought before the courts as prescribed by this law or any other written law; or be released conditionally or unconditionally,” the law reads in part.
My main concern here however: Is it lawful for Nigeria Police to parade suspects? Media parades of criminal suspects by the Nigerian Police has, for a long time, been a subject of heated public debate. It involves not only the dramatic arrest of persons suspected to have committed a crime but also group photographs taking in public and press conferences. A former Enugu State Commissioner of Police once justified this practice by saying it helps to create credibility for the police, assure the public that their job has been done, and reduce tension in the society. Even a former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris who served between 2016 to 2019, also gave the practice a stamp of approval in 2018. In his response to a question asked during the #AskThePolice session on Twitter, he said the parade of suspects “is simply the Force letting the public know the efforts and achievements of the Police in curbing and reducing crime to the barest minimum”.
For me personally, parading criminals caught with guns especially, should not really be an issue, particularly when we consider the disturbing level of crime rate in Nigeria, which in the last couple of months, is quite alarming. But I would also like to consider what the law says about this, and how it all started, and perhaps the way forward.
Looking at how it all started, a reported chat with Charles Odenigbo, President of Law, Media and Social Justice Development Initiative (LMSJI) and former chairman of Lawyers in the Media Forum (LIM), described the practice as “grossly illegal”, adding that it has its roots in the military era, when human rights abuses were rife. In his words: “They did it under the military, which set up tribunals at that time. And the first thing they do when they are in power is they suspend the constitution, come out with decrees, and bypass all fundamental human rights and laws, so they can apply jungle justice. So, the Nigerian Police is borrowing the military coup-style by applying this principle. It is a military coup mentality that the IGP and the Nigerian Police Force is using. For me, it is a rape of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which appoints the IGP and created the Nigerian Police Force.”
And looking at what the law says actually, Section 36, subsections 5 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended, presumed every person who is charged with criminal offence as innocent, until such person is convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction. Needless to say, those sections added that nothing in them should invalidate any law by reason, only that the law imposes upon any such person the burden of proving particular facts. That means, if we are to go with what the law says, that means the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, which includes the Nigerian Police, who are constitutionally bound to protect citizen’s lives and property, and manage security architecture of the country, are violating the position of section 36 subsections 5. That also means, in an attempt to justify the discharge of the entrusted responsibility, suspects of crime and criminality suffer character assassination, while being paraded before the media even before they are found guilty by the court.
This however brings the question of the legality or otherwise of revealing the identity of suspects through media parade, prior to when the suspect is charged with a crime in court. Then, they arrest suspects, which is the only time we see them on media in handcuffs, and subsequently charge them to court for trial. If we are to look into the situation in Nigeria, that means the Nigerian system operates in reverse.
Sampling the opinions of those in the law profession, a professor of law at Bayero University, Kano and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mamman Lawan Yusufari believes such tendencies portray suspects as guilty in the eye of the society, thereby constituting defamation to the reputation of their characters. In his words: “A suspect is protected by the constitution because the law says if a person is suspected to have committed an offence, he/she is a suspect. When you charge the person to a court, the name changes to accused person or a defendant. When trial starts, he may plead guilty or not guilty after the charges are read to the fellow. If he pleads guilty, the court may convict him, depending on the nature of the offence. That is called summary trial.
“After conviction, following summary or normal trial where witnesses and other evidence are taken, the court will deliver judgment by either convict the fellow or discharge and acquaint the accused. If the accused person is convicted, the name changes from accused to convict. At this stage, the media can pronounce to the whole world that the person is a criminal. Before you get to this stage, the constitution under section 36 (5), says the person charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty,” Mamman said.
According to him, that is a fundamental right under section 4 of the constitution. If the media report a suspect of crime by a means of showing the face or mentioning his name on the newspaper, he argued that it is as good as convicting the suspect in the eye of the public. Mamman said such is fundamentally wrong because it is only a court that can pronounce suspect guilty and convict an accused person.
The only problem that I have with this argument, is that in the Nigerian situation, nothing actually works the way it ought to work. We have had cases where obviously hardened criminal suspects are suspiciously released on bail, which some times the Police cannot help it if the person concerned has connections in high places. And such criminals go back to the society to continue their life of crime.
With this, we can then understand why I believe, the Police some times try to use the media parade of criminal suspects as a way of exposing them to the general public, and to serve as deterrent to others nursing such life of crime. All of this will teach others a lesson who might want to join a bad gang. My take is, whatever strategy that the Nigerian Police feels it has to adopt to fight crime, should be encouraged. Mere wishful thinking, and using technicalities and loopholes of the law to justify some of these things, cannot solve the increasing level of the insecurity problems in Nigeria. In other words, I really do not see anything wrong if clearly identified armed robbers and kidnappers, are paraded for the public to see. The purpose in my opinion, is for others to learn from it, that they too will be paraded publicly if caught. It might not be the best practice, but if it helps in the fight against crime, it should be encouraged. Even in the US/UK, Police handcuff suspects publicly, which allows the media to capture their pictures and publish same. The crime situation in Nigeria is a cause for alarm, and the Nigerian Police should be encouraged on all sides to fight this scourge.
While I am aware that there is the tendency for the Police authorities to also abuse this practice of parading suspects before the media, which we have seen in some instances in the past, but in a Nigerian society like ours, sometimes what we need to get things done is the unconventional and unpopular methods. And while it is true that many, if not most, lawyers believe it is completely wrong to parade suspected criminals before their conviction by court, there are however few exceptions. One of them is Itse Sagay, Professor of Law and Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption. He, however, said persons who are paraded and eventually acquitted by the court are free to institute action for damages.
Sagay said: “The tendency is that you find judges and a lot of lawyers saying that it is wrong to parade anybody after arrest and before the completion of a trial because the person has not been convicted and therefore, by our Constitution, he is innocent until he is convicted.
“I think that’s very good interpretation of law as it should apply in a developed country that appreciates the freedoms and rights provided by the Constitution. In a country like ours where freedoms and rights are grossly abused and people do not have a sense of responsibility or discipline, I think some deviation from the way it is handled in some developed countries is called for. And to that extent, such parading may be a deterrence to such matters. I think it is not unsuitable for the type of climate that exists here. So, personally, I don’t quite agree with the elitist lawyers and judiciary who say that we shouldn’t parade anybody. What I will say is this: if a person is wrongly paraded, in other words if he is cleared subsequently of any charge arising from the arrest, the person is free to go and sue the police and government for damages. I prefer that approach in a type of underdeveloped society in which there is so much impunity with regards to crime, conduct and indiscipline like ours.
Zik Gbemre.
July 8, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
-By Zik Gbemre
ON THE PRACTICE OF NIGERIAN POLICE PARADING SUSPECTS BEFORE MEDIA – A LOOK AT ITS LEGALITY OR NOT
Is it lawful for Nigeria Police to parade suspects?…
While some Police Authorities say it helps to create credibility for the police, assure the public that their job has been done, and "douse tension" in the society… the majority of Nigerian lawyers however do not agree because according to them it violates Section 36, subsections 5 of the amended 1999 Constitution…
Others are of the view that, with the level of impunity with regards to crime, conduct and indiscipline, and I would like to add, the unreliability of the system in a society like ours… I really do not see anything wrong with this practice…”
When the Lagos State House of Assembly recently passed an amended version of the Criminal Justice Law of the State, barring the Police from parading suspects before the media henceforth, I thought it necessary to take a critical look at this issue, and for us to understand why it has become a practice, and whether the reasons why it being practiced are justifiable and legitimate, or not.
According to reports, Section 9 (A) of the said bill, which was passed after a voice vote at a sitting of the Lagos State House of Assembly, states that the Police must from the commencement of the law refrain from parading any suspect before the media. The bill, which also stipulates conditions under which the Police can arrest without warrant, states that a person must be reasonably suspected to be unlawfully be in possession of firearms or other such dangerous instruments. A subsection of the passed bill also noted that: “A suspect should be accorded humane treatment, with the right to dignity of person; not to be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment; be brought before the courts as prescribed by this law or any other written law; or be released conditionally or unconditionally,” the law reads in part.
My main concern here however: Is it lawful for Nigeria Police to parade suspects? Media parades of criminal suspects by the Nigerian Police has, for a long time, been a subject of heated public debate. It involves not only the dramatic arrest of persons suspected to have committed a crime but also group photographs taking in public and press conferences. A former Enugu State Commissioner of Police once justified this practice by saying it helps to create credibility for the police, assure the public that their job has been done, and reduce tension in the society. Even a former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris who served between 2016 to 2019, also gave the practice a stamp of approval in 2018. In his response to a question asked during the #AskThePolice session on Twitter, he said the parade of suspects “is simply the Force letting the public know the efforts and achievements of the Police in curbing and reducing crime to the barest minimum”.
For me personally, parading criminals caught with guns especially, should not really be an issue, particularly when we consider the disturbing level of crime rate in Nigeria, which in the last couple of months, is quite alarming. But I would also like to consider what the law says about this, and how it all started, and perhaps the way forward.
Looking at how it all started, a reported chat with Charles Odenigbo, President of Law, Media and Social Justice Development Initiative (LMSJI) and former chairman of Lawyers in the Media Forum (LIM), described the practice as “grossly illegal”, adding that it has its roots in the military era, when human rights abuses were rife. In his words: “They did it under the military, which set up tribunals at that time. And the first thing they do when they are in power is they suspend the constitution, come out with decrees, and bypass all fundamental human rights and laws, so they can apply jungle justice. So, the Nigerian Police is borrowing the military coup-style by applying this principle. It is a military coup mentality that the IGP and the Nigerian Police Force is using. For me, it is a rape of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which appoints the IGP and created the Nigerian Police Force.”
And looking at what the law says actually, Section 36, subsections 5 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended, presumed every person who is charged with criminal offence as innocent, until such person is convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction. Needless to say, those sections added that nothing in them should invalidate any law by reason, only that the law imposes upon any such person the burden of proving particular facts. That means, if we are to go with what the law says, that means the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, which includes the Nigerian Police, who are constitutionally bound to protect citizen’s lives and property, and manage security architecture of the country, are violating the position of section 36 subsections 5. That also means, in an attempt to justify the discharge of the entrusted responsibility, suspects of crime and criminality suffer character assassination, while being paraded before the media even before they are found guilty by the court.
This however brings the question of the legality or otherwise of revealing the identity of suspects through media parade, prior to when the suspect is charged with a crime in court. Then, they arrest suspects, which is the only time we see them on media in handcuffs, and subsequently charge them to court for trial. If we are to look into the situation in Nigeria, that means the Nigerian system operates in reverse.
Sampling the opinions of those in the law profession, a professor of law at Bayero University, Kano and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mamman Lawan Yusufari believes such tendencies portray suspects as guilty in the eye of the society, thereby constituting defamation to the reputation of their characters. In his words: “A suspect is protected by the constitution because the law says if a person is suspected to have committed an offence, he/she is a suspect. When you charge the person to a court, the name changes to accused person or a defendant. When trial starts, he may plead guilty or not guilty after the charges are read to the fellow. If he pleads guilty, the court may convict him, depending on the nature of the offence. That is called summary trial.
“After conviction, following summary or normal trial where witnesses and other evidence are taken, the court will deliver judgment by either convict the fellow or discharge and acquaint the accused. If the accused person is convicted, the name changes from accused to convict. At this stage, the media can pronounce to the whole world that the person is a criminal. Before you get to this stage, the constitution under section 36 (5), says the person charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty,” Mamman said.
According to him, that is a fundamental right under section 4 of the constitution. If the media report a suspect of crime by a means of showing the face or mentioning his name on the newspaper, he argued that it is as good as convicting the suspect in the eye of the public. Mamman said such is fundamentally wrong because it is only a court that can pronounce suspect guilty and convict an accused person.
The only problem that I have with this argument, is that in the Nigerian situation, nothing actually works the way it ought to work. We have had cases where obviously hardened criminal suspects are suspiciously released on bail, which some times the Police cannot help it if the person concerned has connections in high places. And such criminals go back to the society to continue their life of crime.
With this, we can then understand why I believe, the Police some times try to use the media parade of criminal suspects as a way of exposing them to the general public, and to serve as deterrent to others nursing such life of crime. All of this will teach others a lesson who might want to join a bad gang. My take is, whatever strategy that the Nigerian Police feels it has to adopt to fight crime, should be encouraged. Mere wishful thinking, and using technicalities and loopholes of the law to justify some of these things, cannot solve the increasing level of the insecurity problems in Nigeria. In other words, I really do not see anything wrong if clearly identified armed robbers and kidnappers, are paraded for the public to see. The purpose in my opinion, is for others to learn from it, that they too will be paraded publicly if caught. It might not be the best practice, but if it helps in the fight against crime, it should be encouraged. Even in the US/UK, Police handcuff suspects publicly, which allows the media to capture their pictures and publish same. The crime situation in Nigeria is a cause for alarm, and the Nigerian Police should be encouraged on all sides to fight this scourge.
While I am aware that there is the tendency for the Police authorities to also abuse this practice of parading suspects before the media, which we have seen in some instances in the past, but in a Nigerian society like ours, sometimes what we need to get things done is the unconventional and unpopular methods. And while it is true that many, if not most, lawyers believe it is completely wrong to parade suspected criminals before their conviction by court, there are however few exceptions. One of them is Itse Sagay, Professor of Law and Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption. He, however, said persons who are paraded and eventually acquitted by the court are free to institute action for damages.
Sagay said: “The tendency is that you find judges and a lot of lawyers saying that it is wrong to parade anybody after arrest and before the completion of a trial because the person has not been convicted and therefore, by our Constitution, he is innocent until he is convicted.
“I think that’s very good interpretation of law as it should apply in a developed country that appreciates the freedoms and rights provided by the Constitution. In a country like ours where freedoms and rights are grossly abused and people do not have a sense of responsibility or discipline, I think some deviation from the way it is handled in some developed countries is called for. And to that extent, such parading may be a deterrence to such matters. I think it is not unsuitable for the type of climate that exists here. So, personally, I don’t quite agree with the elitist lawyers and judiciary who say that we shouldn’t parade anybody. What I will say is this: if a person is wrongly paraded, in other words if he is cleared subsequently of any charge arising from the arrest, the person is free to go and sue the police and government for damages. I prefer that approach in a type of underdeveloped society in which there is so much impunity with regards to crime, conduct and indiscipline like ours.
Zik Gbemre.
July 8, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes