Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has urged Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to assent to a bill just passed by the state’s House of Assembly barring the police from parading suspects before the media.
Falana, in a statement issued in Lagos titled: “Kudos to Lagos State House of Assembly for outlawing parade of criminal suspects”, said it has become expedient for the governor to assent to the bill in view of the provisions of the constitution and African Charter.
He noted that Section 9(A) of the newly passed bill states: “As from the commencement of this law, the police shall refrain from parading any suspect before the media.”
The bill also stipulates conditions under which a policeman can arrest without warrant, one of which is that a person must be reasonably suspected to unlawfully be in possession of firearms or other such dangerous instruments.
A subsection of the bill also barred the police or any other agency from arresting a person “in lieu of any other person in a criminal matter”. The bill adds that a person, who is arrested, “shall be given reasonable facilities for obtaining legal advice, bail or making arrangements for defence or release”.
It stated that a suspect should also be “accorded humane treatment, with the right to dignity of person; not subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment; be brought before the court as prescribed by this law or any other written law; or be released conditionally or unconditionally.”
While the Bill has adopted the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 on the humane treatment of criminal suspects, it has outlawed the discriminatory and illegal parade of criminal suspects by law enforcement officers in the state.
Falana argued that the practice of parading suspects is illegal as it constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental right of criminal suspects to presumption of innocence guaranteed by Section 36 of the Constitution 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.
“It is equally discriminatory as only lowly placed criminal suspects are exposed to media parade by the police and other law enforcement agencies.
“While poor suspects are paraded for allegedly stealing tubers of yam or telephone handsets valued at N10,000 or less, politically-exposed persons accused of looting the public treasury to the tune of N10 billion or more are never paraded before the media,” the rights lawyer said.
He noted that even though the incriminating statements procured from criminal suspects during media parade are not admissible during trial in criminal courts, they are used by law enforcement agencies to compel members of the public to participate in mob justice,” he said.
Falana argued that they are also used to blackmail judges to convict criminal suspects, with or without evidence adduced by the prosecution.
The senior lawyer hinged his position on three judgments of regional and municipal courts as judicial authorities.
