It is a common occurrence in Nigeria to hear of operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), breaking into homes or hostels of youths at night to effect arrest of people on suspicions of internet fraud and drug especially in student communities and high brow areas that they suspect of habouring such people.
The midnight operation of these agencies called “sting operation” does not consider who lives where or whether people in such apartments are innocents; there is always forced entrance and random arrests with or without probable cause and more often than not, the arrested suspects are paraded before the media even when their culpability or innocence is yet to be proved beyond doubt.
They are made to sit, huddled together in inhumane conditions and are sometimes in handcuffs, when no charge has been levelled against them before a competent court of law or any solid investigation carried out to ascertain they committed the crime they are suspected of committing.
This is a situation that can affect them throughout life and even affect their job prospects as their names and pictures are often exposed to public space.
The legality of this act has been questioned by many over time, especially against the background that Section 36(5) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), states that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
But the parade of suspects in such conditions, without any formal charge brought against them, goes against this principle as even Section 8(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 provides that a suspect, when charged with a crime, shall be accorded humane treatment, having regard to his right to the dignity of his person and will not be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.
Indeed, there are court rulings that held that publishing the names of persons who are yet to be formally charged with an offence, qualify as degrading treatment; in 2019, in a suit filed by Femi Falana (SAN), before a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking an order to stop the pre-trial media parade of crime suspects by law enforcement agencies, the court, in its ruling in August 2022, outlawed the parade of suspects by security agencies in Nigeria, stating that a court order must be obtained in order to do so.
Falana in the suit argued that by the provisions of Sections 2 (1) and 2 (2) (b) of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017 the pre-trial media parade of the suspects amounted to psychological and mental torture and other various forms of torture prohibited by the Act.
However, there is no statute to this effect and the matter has not been determined by the Appeal Court or the Supreme Court.
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