The Federal Government yesterday identified the rot in the criminal justice system as the principal reason for escalation of the culture of self-help and terrorism activities in the country.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), who spoke yesterday also disclosed that the police had carried out extra-judicial killings of over 7,195 people, mostly detainees, in the last four years. He made the revelations while delivering an address yesterday at the national dialogue on “Torture, extra-judicial killings and national security: Human rights implications.”
The event was organised by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, in Abuja. Specifically, Adoke said that the Federal Government had noted that the police had, through the years, relied on “Police Force Order 237” to commit extra-judicial killings. He said that the order, which allowed the police to shoot any suspect or detainee trying to escape or avoid arrest, had led to extra-judicial killings of 7,195 people in four years, out of which 2,500 were detainees.
“Although these figures have been stoutly disputed by the police, even the most charitable defenders of the force cannot deny that some dishonourable officers indeed have taken the law into their hands in the most barbaric fashion by killing suspects and innocent citizens,” Adoke said. The AGF, however, said that plans were afoot for his office to take over from the police, the power to prosecute any criminal suspect in the courts.
He noted that the force was peopled by laymen who could not tackle counsel of defendants in the court. The AGF explained that henceforth, the police would concern themselves with investigations of criminal acts of suspects on the grounds that the inability to diligently prosecute offenders and the general state of helplessness for the victims of crime to get justice had led to cultures of self-help.
Adoke said: “According to a school of thought, the spate of wanton killings and gruesome attacks on persons that has increased in recent times and the apparent lack of will or capacity on the part of security agencies to arrest this trend appears to fuel the incentive for self-help measures that often manifest as acute and barbaric practices.
“There is no doubt that the rule of law has taken flight in the society, which condones a situation where citizens take the law into their hands and summarily try and execute suspected felons. “The apparent slow pace of the criminal justice system particularly the corruption that permeates the system has been identified as the main reason why citizens take laws into their hands.
“I have on numerous occasions listened to or read how disenchanted victims and complainants of an offence speak of corruption in the police, how the police can no longer be trusted to conduct a dispassionate enquiry into a complaint, how many complainants suddenly find themselves behind bars in a curious travesty, and how prosecution and trials are slowed by tardiness and ceaseless adjournments.
“There is no doubt that a holistic reform of our criminal justice system is long overdue. In my humble view the issue transcends the police, the Ministry of Justice and the courts are also complicit. “What we are witnessing in the form of self-help by victims and sympathisers is really collateral damage exerted by the rot in the system.”
But the Managing Partner of the Legal Resources Consortium, Mr. Olawale Fapohunda, disagreed with the Federal Government over its comment on the ills in the police system. He said the approach of the government to reform had made the police an endangered species.
Fapohunda, however, dismissed the idea of state police on the grounds that the solution to the problems of crime, insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria was not federal or state police but creating an efficient, honest and professional police service. The Legal Resources Consortium, which cosponsored the event with NHRC and NASS, said rather than the Federal Government implementing police reform, it had been setting up reform committees.
“The inauguration of the Parry Osayande Committee with terms of reference similar to previous high level committees on police is a clear indication of lack of interest of the administration on police reform,” Fapohunda noted. He noted that instead of implementing the reports it was promoting culture of committee, adding that the police could not meet the challenge of criminality because of lack of modern tools to carry out its job. “Are we aware that the police officers are today endangered species with more than 100 officers killed in active duty in the past three months?
“How can we reasonably expect a citizen’s police, given its poor level of endowment, possibly expect police to protect our rights when the right to dignity of majority of its officers are violated on a daily basis?” he said. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to commence a thorough investigation of allegations of extra-judicial killings levelled against security agencies in the country. It warned that unless the killings were diligently probed and culprits brought to justice, alleged impunity on the part of the law enforcement agencies would continue.
The call was contained in a speech by NBA’s President, Chief Okey Wali (SAN), to mark this year’s International Human Rights Day in Abuja, yesterday. In an address tagged, “Nigeria’s human rights outlook: Looking back and projecting to the future”, Wali also advised the police and the State Security Service, SSS, to ensure that insurgents in their custody were charged to court within the period stipulated by law, “as that will offer them the needed opportunity for trial.”
He added: “There is no doubt that extra-judicial execution by the Nigeria police amounts to a disregard of the duty to organise the apparatus of the state in such a manner as to guarantee the rights recognised in the African Charter.
“It is also our view that by carrying out or tolerating actions directed toward effecting extra-legal executions, by not investigating them adequately or diligently, and by not punishing those responsible, the state violates the duty to respect the rights recognised in the African Charter and to ensure their free and full exercise, both by the alleged victim and by his next of kin, and for society as a whole to know what happened “One area which has witnessed serial violations of the rights of the Nigerian people is in the area of internal security.
Thousands of persons have lost their lives on account of bombings and destruction associated with the current insurgency in Nigeria. Thousands of persons have been displaced and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed.
“On the other hand, hundreds of insurgents have been extra-judicially executed. Hundreds of insurgents have been detained for over one year in various detention centres operated by the Military, the SSS and other military and paramilitary formations with no prospect of a trial.
“It seems therefore that while the insurgents are violating the rights of the Nigerian people through extra-judicial executions and mindless bombings, the security agencies have also been engaged in extrajudicial executions and unlawful and unconstitutional detention of insurgents.
“The tragedy of the situation is that under the National security Agencies Act, Cap N74 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the SSS is charged with responsibility for
(a) the prevention and detection within Nigeria of any crime against the internal security of Nigeria,
(b) the protection and preservation of all non military classified matters concerning the internal security of Nigeria; and
(c) such other responsibility affecting internal security within Nigeria as the National Assembly or the President , as the case may be, may deem necessary.
“We therefore call on the Federal Government to investigate all the allegations of extra-judicial executions and torture levelled against the various branches of the security agencies. Impunity will persist so long as cases of this nature are not investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.
The NBA deeply commiserates with the families and institutions that recently lost members and students to extra-judicial killings in Mubi, Adamawa State and Aluu, Rivers. These are just a few of the most recent instances of the spate of extra-judicial homicides that have besmirched our land.”
National Mirror
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