The new Administration of Criminal Justice ACT mandates regular inspection of detention centres to prevent wrongful incacerations, but magistrates won't comply.
“The worst forms of human right abuses are perpetrated at the police stations and other detention facilities of our security agencies, yet, our magistrates have remained adamant in carrying out their statutory duty of periodic inspection of police cells as stipulated in the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015.”
The lawyer alleged that Mr Anatogu was detained and tortured on a civil matter that did not concern the police. He said the police also refused to release him on bail to his relations. Mr Anatogu was eventually arraigned on the 13th day and granted bail by the court. “When Mr Oraefo reported his ordeal, detention and extortion to our office, we wrote a petition to the Inspector General Police. The matter was assigned to the I.G.P Elite Unit known as X-Squad, for investigation”.
The court ordered the police to either admit Mr Ngana on “bail or arraign him in court within one week”. But the Anti-kidnapping Unit of Nigeria Police Command in Enugu State had not obeyed the order at the time of filing this report. As such, the family is yet to see him after over one year in police custody.
In 2015, the National Assembly passed the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and was signed into law. This marked a watershed in the history of criminal justice administration in Nigeria, as it brought changes in the system, gave the sector a human face and made it citizen-oriented.
The judicial official explained that the Code of Conduct prevents them from talking to the press but said magistrates in the state had not been carrying out this function because the ACJA is a federal Act and that the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Anambra State does not have a similar provision. As such, he said magistrates in the area are not bound by the provisions of the Act.
“If I am going to the police to perform some judicial functions, what about my security? What is the guarantee that they would respect what I would say when I get there? What is the guarantee that they would not chase me away from the station? If they had disobeyed the orders of higher courts, then who am I?”
A similar letter was addressed to the State Commissioner of Police, dated August 6, requesting for data of police stations that had reported or recorded the visits of magistrates from January 2015 to December 2018. It was also not replied by the police.
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