Parading Suspects is Illegal-NHRC blast Police, EFCC and others

…urges victims to file petitions....

FCT police command parading suspect burglars

The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, has declared as unconstitutional and illegal, the pre-trial parade of suspects by the Nigeria Police Force, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and other security agencies in the country.

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The Commission, which is saddled with the responsibility of promoting and protecting all human rights in the country, as well as helping the government to formulate policies on human rights, said it was worried that several agencies continued to parade suspects before the camera, in gross disobedience to subsisting court judgements.

Consequently, the NHRC, through its Executive Secretary, Mr. Tony Ojukwu, vowed to institute a legal action against police and other agencies involved in the illegal act, even as it implored victims of such media parade to approach it with petitions.

Ojukwu, who made the call during the 2022 media parley the Commission held at its headquarters in Abuja, said the rights body would do everything possible to get redress for paraded suspects that would lodge a formal complaint before it.

He said: “Parading of suspects before they are charged to court is unconstitutional. It is a violation of the right suspects. Even the courts have decided that this is not proper, but the police especially keeps doing this."

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“Unfortunately, we discovered that people whose rights have been violated in such manner, once they are released on bail, they walk away and forget everything. Let me put it on record that anybody who has suffered that kind of treatment can approach the Commission and together, we will follow up the case till we get justice."

“However, if after someone has been paraded and the person walks away without pursuing the case, it becomes impossible to tackle the person’s case.

“Even if there will be a class action, there is still the need for evidence of the witness.

“We are therefore urging Nigerians whose rights have been violated to approach the Commission and we assure you that we will work hard to make sure that we get redress in court”, Ojukwu added.

On the issue of incessant harrasment of journalists by security agents, he said the NHRC would continue to collaborate with other stakeholders “to ensure that the media space remains wide and secure for the practice of journalism in the country, bearing in mind that freedom of expression and the press is one of the hallmarks of a civilized society”.

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“As always, the Commission had stood behind any journalist who were incarcerated in the course of their official functions and will continue to toe this line even with increased vigour, given our concern to the security and safety of journalists and other persons living in the country”, the NHRC boss added.

Meanwhile, in his remarks, Chairman of the Abuja branch of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Mr. Emmanuel Ogbeche, while commending the NHRC for always intervening in cases involving pressmen, said there was need for a charter for the safety of journalists

“A lot of journalists have in the recent past been arrested, detained and harassed by agents of government and the fear is that as we approach the 2023 general elections that the harassment may increase”, Ogbeche stated.

Enugu State Police Command parading suspect

He further implored the NHRC to issue a White Paper of its findings on issues that bordered on the EndSARS protest.

“There is need to bring closure to those affected and to also avert those things that led to the protest”, the NUJ Chairman added.

Likewise, Chairman of Correspondents Chapel of the NUJ, Mr. Jide Oyekunle, decried that a recent report, ranked the country as the 2nd worst in Africa on the issue of violation of press freedom.

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“It will interest you to know that the name of a senior journalist, Mr. Lanre Arogubdade was just removed from the watch list after 38 years by the Nigerian secret police.

“Irrespective of harassment, intimidation, arrest and persecution, we will continue to uphold and protect the fundamental objectives of the directive principles of the state policy as set out in Chapter 2 of the Constitution”, Mr. Oyekunle added.

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