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| National Coordinator NOPRIN, Okechukwu Nwanguma |
In August 2008, a member of the Editorial Board of THISDAY Newspapers, Mr. Abayomi Ogundeji was killed. It was later reported that Ogundeji was killed by a gang of six armed robbers.
The incident allegedly took place at a point between Dopemu and Akowonjo area of Lagos about 11.45pm. Investigations showed that his death was not random but premeditated.
The matter actually reached the court, but was stalled after one of the witnesses, identified as Tunmise, was killed by unknown gunmen. Tunmise, a key witness was assassinated a month after Ogundeji was killed. The witness was said to have been with Ogundeji in his car on the fateful day he was killed. Many believed that the police were behind the murder of Ogundeji and Tunmise, but it is yet unproven.
A close friend to Tunmise, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke with the New Telegraph about her demise. The friend said: “Tunmise was beside Ogundeji in the car when he was killed. Invariably, Tunmise knew who and how Ogundeji was killed. After the incident, she became paranoid and was relocated to her grandmother’s home in Ibadan for care and probably safety.
Tunmise predicted her own death. She told us, ‘the trigger happy gunmen who killed Ogundeji could be after my life.’ Every sound and everything seemed to startle her. She was gunned down right in front of her grandmother’s house in the morning while she was washing clothes. She was shot twice. Since her death, her grandmother had never been the same.”
It is because of such mindless killings; like the murder of Tunmise, to keep her quite from testifying in court, that most countries in the world came up with the witness protection programme.
According to the Wikipedia, “Witness protection is protection of a threatened witness or any person involved in the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during and after a trial, usually by police.
While a witness may only require protection until the conclusion of a trial, some witnesses are provided with a new identity and may live out the rest of their lives under government protection.
Witness protection is usually required in trials against organised crime, where law enforcement sees a risk for witnesses to be intimidated by colleagues of defendants. It is also used at war crime trials. Not all countries have formal witness protection programmes; instead, local police may implement informal protection as the need arises in specific cases.” The programme’s operations are kept secret, but a few facts are revealed by the Department of Justice.
Witnesses are given 24-hour-a-day security while in a high-threat environment. Money for housing, essentials, and medical care is provided to witnesses. It also provides job training and employment assistance.
A witness who agrees to testify for the prosecution is generally eligible to join the programme. The programme is entirely voluntary. Witnesses are permitted to leave the programme and return to their original identities at any time, but this is always discouraged by administrators
Some human rights lawyers have argued that there is a witness protection programme in the Nigerian Constitution, but there is however the question of how effective it is and how many threatened witnesses or victims had benefited from it?
The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) recently organised a two-day stakeholders’ senisitisation workshop on the reformed Lagos State Coroner System Law and procedures. The workshop ran from June 11 to 12, 2014.
Many of the speakers urged participants, which ranged from journalists, policemen and women, members of the civil society organisations, to lawyers, to be brave enough to report crime discovered, no matter the risk to their lives.
This ‘risk’ became the dividing nucleus in the interactive session, with many bluntly refusing to play the hero or heroine. Chairman of the workshop, Executive Director, Confluence of Rights (CoR), Nigeria, Zacheus Senbanjo, explained the use of the Coroner Law and how it was the civic duty of any citizen to report a crime, especially against uniform personnel or other paramilitary and local vigilance organisations. He said: “Don’t be easily intimidated! What is worth fighting for, is worth dying for. Don’t be chicken hearted.
We must learn to stand by what principles we advocate. Let me posit here and now, that a properly administered Coroner System, anywhere in the world, is aimed at ensuring that the people, her government and all its institutions and agencies are diligently accountable, giving no room for courting rigging or rigging the courts.
An inquest is held and a verdict at inquest is written. Inquests are formal court proceedings, with a five-person jury, held to publicly review the circumstances of a death. The jury hears evidence from the witnesses under subpoena in order to determine the facts of the death.
The presiding coroner is responsible to ensure the jury maintains the goal of fact-finding, not fault finding.
“An inquest is held if the coroner determines that it would be beneficial in addressing community concern about death, assisting in finding information about the deceased or circumstances around a death and or draw-ing attention to a cause of death if such awareness can prevent future death. “An inquest is mandatory if the deceased was in the care or control of a police officer or in a police lock-up at the time of their death. Everything must be done to make the Lagos State Coroner work, because it embraces international standard.”
Leonard Dibia, Director of Programmes, Access to Justice, who like magistrates in the workshop, insisted that witness protection was entrenched in the Nigerian Constitution, said that one of the factors militating against Coroner Law, was fear of reprisal attack from whosoever a witness was supposed to testy against.
His words: “Our level of public spiritedness or public interest is very low and weak. Relatives of persons who die in suspect circumstances would rather spend resources on a lavish funeral expenses than spending a little fraction of that money to pay for professional services like incisive autopsy and prosecution of inquests.
Not more than 0.1% of our citizenry respond to their civic duties of reporting the presence of dead bodies on the streets to ‘appropriate authorities’ as required by the Coroner Law. “This condition is further exacerbated by the general impression and fear (not unfounded though) of being arrested by the police for undertaking the civic duties ascribed every Lagosian under the Coroner Systems Law.
“When in 2010, we instituted the Dangote accident inquest, only families of seven of the victims out of a total of 45 casualties come up to attend inquest. At the end of the inquest, only families of those seven victims received compensation. In the Omotosho inquest, the victim saw his friend being molested by the police about 8.00 pm in the Sogunle Area of Lagos State.
“The victim parked his vehicle and came down to plead with the police officers. The officers shot the victim and while he was on the floor reeling in pain, his wife who was now running to her husband’s rescue heard the officer asking the victim, ‘you never still die’? The officer shot at the victim a second time, killing him. It is sad to observe that the victim’s friend for whose interest the victim was killed, ran away beyond trace. “He neither showed up at the police station, nor did he attend the inquest.
“In January, 2012, one Aderinto was killed by police bullets during the fuel subsidy protests in Agege area of Lagos State. In collaboration with the Lagos branch of the NBA, we commenced inquest proceedings over the matter. All relevant witnesses including the parents of the deceased abandoned the inquest even when we undertook to pay their expenses; the entire process floundered after several unfruitful adjournments.”
Some of the magistrates at the workshop argued that there is a witness protection programme for witnesses who come to the Coroner Courts to testify. The magistrates, who are also the coroners, said that if witnesses fear for their lives, they could testify through a projector. But one of the participants pointed out: “But the projector will show the witness’s face. It won’t take long for security personnel to locate the person.”
It is clear that the Nigerian society has a lame witness protection programme. This is why many people will never come forward to testy in cases that will see the ‘bad guy’ going to jail. Indeed, in the workshop, many of the participants told our correspondent, that they had rather report a crime to the police anonymously, through police hotline, “Because we don’t trust the police.
They can reveal somebody’s identity to the suspect and the suspect could come after the person or family.” A good number also refused considering going to court to testify against uniform personnel or known terrorists, for fear they would come after them or their family members. It was however clear, that a lot of Nigerians will gladly testify against a suspected criminal if they are sure they would be protected by the government. But how many had ever been given such protection? And who gets to protect witnesses who are supposed to testify against the government?
The incident allegedly took place at a point between Dopemu and Akowonjo area of Lagos about 11.45pm. Investigations showed that his death was not random but premeditated.
The matter actually reached the court, but was stalled after one of the witnesses, identified as Tunmise, was killed by unknown gunmen. Tunmise, a key witness was assassinated a month after Ogundeji was killed. The witness was said to have been with Ogundeji in his car on the fateful day he was killed. Many believed that the police were behind the murder of Ogundeji and Tunmise, but it is yet unproven.
A close friend to Tunmise, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke with the New Telegraph about her demise. The friend said: “Tunmise was beside Ogundeji in the car when he was killed. Invariably, Tunmise knew who and how Ogundeji was killed. After the incident, she became paranoid and was relocated to her grandmother’s home in Ibadan for care and probably safety.
Tunmise predicted her own death. She told us, ‘the trigger happy gunmen who killed Ogundeji could be after my life.’ Every sound and everything seemed to startle her. She was gunned down right in front of her grandmother’s house in the morning while she was washing clothes. She was shot twice. Since her death, her grandmother had never been the same.”
It is because of such mindless killings; like the murder of Tunmise, to keep her quite from testifying in court, that most countries in the world came up with the witness protection programme.
According to the Wikipedia, “Witness protection is protection of a threatened witness or any person involved in the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during and after a trial, usually by police.
While a witness may only require protection until the conclusion of a trial, some witnesses are provided with a new identity and may live out the rest of their lives under government protection.
Witness protection is usually required in trials against organised crime, where law enforcement sees a risk for witnesses to be intimidated by colleagues of defendants. It is also used at war crime trials. Not all countries have formal witness protection programmes; instead, local police may implement informal protection as the need arises in specific cases.” The programme’s operations are kept secret, but a few facts are revealed by the Department of Justice.
Witnesses are given 24-hour-a-day security while in a high-threat environment. Money for housing, essentials, and medical care is provided to witnesses. It also provides job training and employment assistance.
A witness who agrees to testify for the prosecution is generally eligible to join the programme. The programme is entirely voluntary. Witnesses are permitted to leave the programme and return to their original identities at any time, but this is always discouraged by administrators
Some human rights lawyers have argued that there is a witness protection programme in the Nigerian Constitution, but there is however the question of how effective it is and how many threatened witnesses or victims had benefited from it?
The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) recently organised a two-day stakeholders’ senisitisation workshop on the reformed Lagos State Coroner System Law and procedures. The workshop ran from June 11 to 12, 2014.
Many of the speakers urged participants, which ranged from journalists, policemen and women, members of the civil society organisations, to lawyers, to be brave enough to report crime discovered, no matter the risk to their lives.
This ‘risk’ became the dividing nucleus in the interactive session, with many bluntly refusing to play the hero or heroine. Chairman of the workshop, Executive Director, Confluence of Rights (CoR), Nigeria, Zacheus Senbanjo, explained the use of the Coroner Law and how it was the civic duty of any citizen to report a crime, especially against uniform personnel or other paramilitary and local vigilance organisations. He said: “Don’t be easily intimidated! What is worth fighting for, is worth dying for. Don’t be chicken hearted.
We must learn to stand by what principles we advocate. Let me posit here and now, that a properly administered Coroner System, anywhere in the world, is aimed at ensuring that the people, her government and all its institutions and agencies are diligently accountable, giving no room for courting rigging or rigging the courts.
An inquest is held and a verdict at inquest is written. Inquests are formal court proceedings, with a five-person jury, held to publicly review the circumstances of a death. The jury hears evidence from the witnesses under subpoena in order to determine the facts of the death.
The presiding coroner is responsible to ensure the jury maintains the goal of fact-finding, not fault finding.
“An inquest is held if the coroner determines that it would be beneficial in addressing community concern about death, assisting in finding information about the deceased or circumstances around a death and or draw-ing attention to a cause of death if such awareness can prevent future death. “An inquest is mandatory if the deceased was in the care or control of a police officer or in a police lock-up at the time of their death. Everything must be done to make the Lagos State Coroner work, because it embraces international standard.”
Leonard Dibia, Director of Programmes, Access to Justice, who like magistrates in the workshop, insisted that witness protection was entrenched in the Nigerian Constitution, said that one of the factors militating against Coroner Law, was fear of reprisal attack from whosoever a witness was supposed to testy against.
His words: “Our level of public spiritedness or public interest is very low and weak. Relatives of persons who die in suspect circumstances would rather spend resources on a lavish funeral expenses than spending a little fraction of that money to pay for professional services like incisive autopsy and prosecution of inquests.
Not more than 0.1% of our citizenry respond to their civic duties of reporting the presence of dead bodies on the streets to ‘appropriate authorities’ as required by the Coroner Law. “This condition is further exacerbated by the general impression and fear (not unfounded though) of being arrested by the police for undertaking the civic duties ascribed every Lagosian under the Coroner Systems Law.
“When in 2010, we instituted the Dangote accident inquest, only families of seven of the victims out of a total of 45 casualties come up to attend inquest. At the end of the inquest, only families of those seven victims received compensation. In the Omotosho inquest, the victim saw his friend being molested by the police about 8.00 pm in the Sogunle Area of Lagos State.
“The victim parked his vehicle and came down to plead with the police officers. The officers shot the victim and while he was on the floor reeling in pain, his wife who was now running to her husband’s rescue heard the officer asking the victim, ‘you never still die’? The officer shot at the victim a second time, killing him. It is sad to observe that the victim’s friend for whose interest the victim was killed, ran away beyond trace. “He neither showed up at the police station, nor did he attend the inquest.
“In January, 2012, one Aderinto was killed by police bullets during the fuel subsidy protests in Agege area of Lagos State. In collaboration with the Lagos branch of the NBA, we commenced inquest proceedings over the matter. All relevant witnesses including the parents of the deceased abandoned the inquest even when we undertook to pay their expenses; the entire process floundered after several unfruitful adjournments.”
Some of the magistrates at the workshop argued that there is a witness protection programme for witnesses who come to the Coroner Courts to testify. The magistrates, who are also the coroners, said that if witnesses fear for their lives, they could testify through a projector. But one of the participants pointed out: “But the projector will show the witness’s face. It won’t take long for security personnel to locate the person.”
It is clear that the Nigerian society has a lame witness protection programme. This is why many people will never come forward to testy in cases that will see the ‘bad guy’ going to jail. Indeed, in the workshop, many of the participants told our correspondent, that they had rather report a crime to the police anonymously, through police hotline, “Because we don’t trust the police.
They can reveal somebody’s identity to the suspect and the suspect could come after the person or family.” A good number also refused considering going to court to testify against uniform personnel or known terrorists, for fear they would come after them or their family members. It was however clear, that a lot of Nigerians will gladly testify against a suspected criminal if they are sure they would be protected by the government. But how many had ever been given such protection? And who gets to protect witnesses who are supposed to testify against the government?
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