The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has directed the Nigeria Police Force to stop the public parade of crime suspects.
Senior police officers in Abuja and Lagos, in an interview with newsmen confirmed receiving the directive. A top officer in Lagos said, “I am aware of it. The directive was given earlier this month, and the information was passed down to us. You would have noticed some level of compliance.”
Similarly, an officer in the FCT confirmed, “Yes, we have been asked to stop parading suspects.” Awaiting Official Police ReactionThe Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, stated that an official statement would be released soon. “The police will react officially on the matter when it is time,” he said.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) described the practice of parading suspects as illegal. It constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental right of criminal suspects to the 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 ₦10,000 or less, politically-exposed persons accused of looting the public treasury to the tune of ₦10 billion or more are never paraded before the media.”
