Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has ordered the Inspector-General of Police to pay the sum of N1 million as compensation to one Victor Ojionu for parading him before the media.
Justice Abubakar gave the order on Thursday after listening to arguments from parties in the suit. She said a court order must be obtained by the Nigerian police to parade suspects.
She held that the parading of Mr Ojionu in handcuffs, who was detained without a warrant, is in violation of his fundamental human rights.
Back story
- Mr Ojionu was arrested and paraded on September 17, 2019, by the Police Intelligence Response Team led by Abba Kyari for internet fraud.
- He was arrested for allegedly stealing over N500 million within five years.
- According to media reports, a victim had alerted the police and EFCC about the withdrawal of millions of naira from his account following the theft of his credit card details.
What happened in court?
In a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/01/2020, Mr Ojionu had sued the IGP and the Attorney-General of the Federation in a fundamental human rights suit.
His lawyer, Abubakar Marshal argued that the pre-trial parade of his client was unlawful and a violation of his fundamental human rights since he was yet to be found guilty by a competent court of law.
He sought the court to declare that his pre-trial parade was illegal and void as it violates Section 34 of the constitution and Articles 5 and 6 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
He also sought among other reliefs, an order compelling the media houses that covered the parade to retract the news item from their platforms.
Ruling on the matter, Justice Abubakar held that the pre-trial media parade of Ojionu was illegal, null and void and in violation of Sections 34 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, and Articles 6,4,5 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
The court also made an order compelling media houses that had covered the parading to pull down the defamatory publications.
The court awarded N1 million in favour of Mr Ojionu for the unlawful violation of his rights
What you should know
- Lawyers have argued that the parading of suspects contravenes section 36 of the 1999 constitution (as amended), which guarantees the presumption of innocence of a suspect until proven guilty by a competent court of law.
- The courts at several occasions have cautioned law enforcement agencies to desist from parading criminal suspects before the media.
- Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state on September 30, 2021, assented to the Administration of Criminal Justice (Amendment) Law (ACJL) of Lagos State, 2021.
- Section 9(a) of the law states that: “As from the commencement of this law, the police shall refrain from parading any suspect before the media”.
Another RUBBISH verdict from Nigerian courts…smh
The so-called “parading” is known as the “perp walk” in the US, and happens in various forms in several other jurisdictions. Parading a SUSPECT does not violate such SUSPECT’s presumption of innocence any more than naming the suspect, declaring a suspect wanted, or in fact arresting a criminal suspect. If the only time that a criminal suspect can only be named or disclosed publicly is only AFTER conviction, then Nigeria might as well hold secret trials.
The so-called “parade” of SUSPECTS is not held out as a criminal trial nor a pronouncement of guilt, but rather merely the public disclosure of the SUSPECT. Even when those suspects make statements or “confess” during such public presentations, even a novice law student (more less a judge, in this instance) should be well aware that such statements (or “confessions”) are NOT used in, nor taken into account by the, courts.
It was up to the Lawyers of the Police to argue why such was indeed not a violation and why they need not approach the court before briefing and naming a suspect while keeping the suspect reasonably in a state that can prevent his escape before trial.
Now, that they are done with that, can we have a diligent prosecution of the alleged offence.
Garbage. Parading suspects creates a bias against the suspect and is in complete violation of such a suspect’s rights. In this case, the arresting officers have been accused of such arbitrary arrests which lead to extortion. There are at least three of such allegations against Abba Kyari. In other climes, every case involving that fellow would have been thrown out.