Introduction
Last week, I took a break from this contemporary issue, the legality or otherwise of the practice of public parade of suspects by security agencies, which we commenced two weeks ago, to pay accolades to a very important personality, a disciplinarian, a patriot and pan-Nigerian military personnel. Major General Paul Chabri Tarfa (rtd), who turned 80 last week. Today, we shall continue and conclude same. Please, read on.
The Fela narcotic trial
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on January 14, 1997, arrested Afrobeat king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, on allegations 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 a truce with Fela, leading to discontinuing his prosecution before the then Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal.
How Nigeria 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 State 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 second 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 the 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 P.V. 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 “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 Indian 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.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh was in the same class as Nigeria, until 2012. It, however, outlawed the practice following a court order in 2021 banning media parade. The order was informed by the parade of a judge, Javed Imam, who was accused of drug peddling. The order barred the police from producing suspects or arrested persons in any case before the media.
The libel in media parade
Indeed, public media parade of 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 functions?
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 parade. 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).
(Concluded)
Sounds and bites
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.
“No one can destroy iron but its own rust can. Likewise, no one can destroy a person, but his own mindset can.” – Anonymous
“In U.S.A, you see names like Bush, Stone yet they progress. But in Africa, Favour is struggling to feed, Blessing is begging for date, Rejoice is suffering from depression, Wisdom no get sense, Victory failed exams and even Courage dey fear dog” – Anonymous
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“A farmer drove to a neighbour’s farmhouse and knocked on the door.
A boy about 9 opened the door.
Is your dad or mom home? Asked the farmer.
No, they went to town, said the boy.
How about your brother, Howard, is he here?
No, he went with mom and dad.
The farmer stood there for few minutes shifting from one foot to the other, mumbling to himself, when the boy says, I know where all the tools are, if you want to borrow one, or I can give dad a message.
Well, said the farmer uncomfortably, No, I really want to talk to you dad about your brother Howard getting my daughter Suzy pregnant!
Boy: You will have to talk to my dad about that. I know he charges $50 for the bulls and $15 for the pigs, but I have no idea how much he charges for Howard.”
Thought 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)