Last week, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed an amended version of the Criminal Justice Law of the state barring the Police from parading suspects before the media.
Section 9(A) of the newly passed bill states that, “as from the commencement of this law, the police shall refrain from parading any suspect before the media.”
The practice of parading suspects before the media in Nigeria had been a controversial one which elicited debate about its propriety or otherwise.
Many senior lawyers, human right activists and civil society organisations have called for an end to it because it violates the suspects’ human rights.
We support and queue behind the Lagos State House of Assembly decision to end the crude practice in the state and indeed throughut the federation. Section 36 subsections 5 of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended, presumed every person who is accused of criminal offence to be innocent until such a person is convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The provision is also in agreement with other international instruments like the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, also known as the Banjul Charter; an international human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent.
For the record, Nigeria was part of the African Union (AU) member states that ratified the treaty in 1983. Therefore, by virtue of this provision, the liberty and privacy of criminal suspects under the law of the land are protected beyond any orchestrated intent of the law enforcement agency, especially the Police.
We hold that the only thing that can possibly be responsible for the practice of parading suspects before the media by law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, particularly, the Police, is eye service. The Police want to prove a point to both their leaders or superiors and the public that they are working and getting the job of securing the lives and property of Nigerians done, and effectively, too.
The Police feel the best and perhaps the most convincing way to do that is to parade criminal suspects before the media when trial has not begun and a pronouncement made by a court of competent jurisdiction.
What this means is that the common saying “a suspect is presumed innocent until he is found guilty” has been reversed by the police.
To find a suspect guilty, the prosecution must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt to be able to convince the court to make a pronouncement affirming the position of the prosecution.
But what parading of suspects amounts to is that they are deemed guilty of the allegation brought against them until they are able to prove that they are innocent.
This, we believe, violently destroys the maxim “he who alleges must prove it.” It shamelessly shifts the burden of proof to the accused and not the accuser as the case should be.
In 2019, human rights activist and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, approached a Federal High Court in Abuja, in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/519/19 asking it to declare that pre-trial media parade of criminal suspects by security and anti-corruption agencies in the country as illegal and unconstitutional.
Falana had cited as respondents in the suit, the Inspector General of Police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigerian Customs Service, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigerian Navy, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, as well as the Attorney General of the Federation.
He sought “A declaration that the pre-trial media parade of criminal suspects by the Respondents is illegal, null and void as it violates Section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP A9) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
“A declaration that the pre-trial media parade of criminal suspects by the Respondents is illegal, null and void as it violates Section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples”
“A declaration that the pre-trial media parade of criminal suspects is illegal, null and void as it violates Section 36(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, (Cap A9) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The lawyer said the act is a violation of Section 36(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended, Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, (Cap A9) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
What is most annoying about the act of the parading suspects is that only the poor and the less privileged in the society are paraded before the media, while the rich and famous suspects treated with dignity and respect. It is at once a show of one law for the poor and another for the rich. This, in itself, makes nonsense of the principle of equality before the law.
We, therefore, appeal to the Governor of Lagos State, Babjide Sanwo-Olu, to expeditiously sign the Bill once it is transmitted to him from the state House of Assembly and put an end to this ridiculous and degrading treatment of suspects. The Police should learn to have finished the investigations into alleged criminal infractions, prosecute the same and secure proper conviction before thinking of parading anybody, if at all they are minded to doing that. That way, whoever is paraded would be seen in the light of the crime committed and not just on the basis of conjecture.
