Essay
By Mike Ozekhome, SAN
INTRODUCTION
LAST week, we commenced this vexed topical issue on the legality or otherwise of the practice of public parade of suspects by security agencies. Specifically, the current face-off between the Lagos State Police Command and the Lagos State Government on the illegal and unconstitutional act of public parading of suspects before the media. Today, we shall continue and conclude same. Please, read on.
THE FELA NARCOTIC TRIAL
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on 14th January, 1997, arrested Afrobeat king, late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti on allegation of being in possession of narcotic substance. The then NDLEA chairman, Major-General Musa Bamaiyi paraded the legendary musical icon before the media in handcuffs.
Fela, sued the NDLEA, claiming damages of N100 million for, the violation of his fundamental rights to fair hearing, personal liberty and human dignity. The NDLEA later brokered truce with Fela, leading to discontinuing his prosecution before the then Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal.
HOW THE POLICE WAS FINED FOR THE IGNOBLE ACT OF SUBJECTING SUSPECTS TO MEDIA PARADE
The case of Ottoh Obono, accused by the Police in Lagos of being a member of a gang of armed robbers who specialised in car snatching, came with a huge cost, unlike the Fela debacle. Obono had been arrested and paraded before the media by the Lagos State Police Command on October 7, 2009.
The Lagos DPP upon a calm review of the available evidence completely exonerated Obono of any crime. He therefore sued the Police before the Federal High Court, Calabar, in suit FHC/CA/CS/91/2009, for his illegal incarceration, while awaiting the DPP’s legal advice.
In a judgment on July 18, 2011, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke condemned the action of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police for parading Obono before the media. The Judge awarded N20 million exemplary damages and N50, 000 cost against the Police in favour of Mr Obono. In most lucid totems, Justice Aneke held: “The parading of the applicant (Ottoh Obono) on October 7, 2009 by 2nd respondent (commissioner of police, Lagos State) before a horde of journalists from both the print and electronic media prior to the applicant’s arraignment before a court of competent jurisdiction as a member of a gang of armed robbers who specialises in car snatching and the subsequent publishing of the applicant’s photographs in The Punch Newspaper of Thursday, the 8th of October, 2009 and the airing of same news item on the 9 O’clock Network News Programme of the NTA on the same date, only for the said applicant to be exonerated of having committed any crime by the legal advice of the learned Director of Public Prosecutions of Lagos State after having spent a period of over 10 months in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons, Lagos State on remand, makes nonsense of the applicant’s right to presumption of innocence as enshrined in Section 36 (5) of the constitution off the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and leaves much to be desired in the administration of justice system in the country…..
“The respondents’ conducts against the applicant are totally reprehensible and condemnable and I hereby condemn same without equivocation”.
In DYOT BAYI & 14 ORS. V. FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (2004-2009) CCJLER 245 AT 265, the sub-regional Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS Court, trenchantly condemned the media trial of the Applicants when it held that: “The Court is of the opinion that for the fact that the Defendants presented the Applicants before the press when no judge or court has found them guilty, certainly constitute a violation of the principle of presumption of innocence such as provided in Article 7(b) of the same African Charter and not a violation in the sense of Article 5 of the said Charter.” The Court proceeded to award damages of US$42,750.00 to each of the 10 Applicants and the US$10,000.00 as costs payable by the Federal Government for the illegal actions of the naval personnel who carried out the illegal parade of the applicants.
The height of the absurdity inherent in parading mere criminal suspects before the media occurred in laughable arraignment of suspects in the horrific assassination of Olaitan Oyerinde, the former Principal Secretary of the then Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. The brutal murder had occurred in Benin on January 24, 2013. The Edo State Police Command paraded the alleged assassins, including a human rights activist in Benin, on the contrary, the State Security Service paraded the alleged armed robbers who killed the deceased in Abuja. A former Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Lawal Gunmi, described the shameful episode in excoriating terms thus: “a bewildering case of one murder, two government agencies and two different culprits. The police and the State Security Service, the two security agencies investigating the murder, paraded two different sets of suspects, a development that has set off speculation that the investigation into the murder was most likely bungled.”
FOREIGN JURISDICTIONS AND MEDIA PARADE OF SUSPECTS INDIA
In 2015, Division Bench of the Hyderabad High Court, which included the Chief Justice, Justice Kaljay Jyoti Sengupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, expressed “extreme displeasure” over parading of accused persons before the print media and television Channels. The CJ noted that such practice leaves a permanent stigma on the accused when eventually acquitted, with him and his family losing societal prestige.
On another occasion, a three-Judge bench of the Supreme Court led by the then Chief Justice of India, R.M. Lohda, decried media parade as “it is an affront to the person and dignity of the accused who was presumed innocent until convicted of the crime”. He held that it touches on Article 21 of the India Constitution (Rights to life and fair trial). Even the Bombay High Court on November 7, 2014, asked the Maharashtra Government and the Union Government to instruct the investigating agencies not to resort to pre-trial disclosure of the accused.
THE LIBEL IN MEDIA PARADE
Indeed public media parade or suspects can also be libelous, where the suspect’s pictures are published by the media. In such a case, the publishers and media orgainsations are liable in damages.
ANY CLASH BETWEEN THE LAGOS STATE LAW AND POLICE FUUCTIONS?
Some pundits have argued that the Lagos State Government may be heading for a head-on collision if it insists on enforcing the law against media parades. I do not think so. A state, such as Lagos State, is entitled to protect its citizens and enact laws towards such protection. The doctrine of “covering the field” is not applicable herein, security not being a matter within the Exclusive Legislative List. See sections 4(5); 14(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as altered).
There are two sides to every coin. Life itself contains not only the good, but also the bad and the ugly. Let us now explore these.
“If peace means accepting second-class citizenship, then I don’t want it. If peace means keeping my mouth shut in the midst of evil and injustice, then I don’t want it. If peace means being complacent and accepting the status quo, then I don’t want it. If peace means being passive then I don’t want it. If peace means a willingness to be exploited and humiliated, then that’s is the kind of peace that I don’t want.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“When the citizens of a Nation deem their most accomplished thieves as the most electable, then they lose the right to complain when theft becomes their National creed.”- Modibo Keita (1915-1977).
“The police station in Kagoro, Kaduna State, closes by 7pm. They say it is due to security reasons….. wahala no de finish especially for Nigeria.”– Anonymous.
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK
“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” (Hubert H. HumphreY).
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” (Ayn Rand).
“Majority rule only works if you’re also considering individual rights. Because you can’t have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.” (Larry Flynt).
-August 03, 2021, 15:59 GMT|
