It is no longer news that the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria obviously has some lapses which is not alien to Constitution of other nations but have become an issue of serious concern because some of such lapses have been reoccurring in our case.
It is commonsensical to note that an unambiguous Constitution will make legal arguments irrelevant and automatically drag legal practice into Oblivion because every educated and not necessarily learned individual will have prior knowledge of the laws of the land and subsequently be able to defend themselves.
I understand the drill and do not have a problem with it because our lawyers deserve to be hired and paid handsomely as little compensation for many years of burning the mid night candle in the University.
However, I feel that the roles, duties and activities of our various security agencies should not be ambiguous at all because the show of shame that usually stir us in the face when different security agencies clash in this country could have been avoided if the national assembly as an apparatus of the legislative arm could sponsor a bill to that effect.
This country should not be in this pitiable security level, starting with the most popular lie that bail is free when everybody knows that people are being charged outrageous sums for bail in this country everyday. Would it not make more sense to publish a bail levy that is obtainable for every crime one is accused of?. That way, everyone will know what they ought to pay which will make it impossible for the police to drain unsuspecting suspects with outrageous sums all in the name of bail bond and will also safe us the embarrassment of reading that bail is free as a public notice in every police station when we all know that the said notice is far from the truth in reality.
I feel our legislators also have a whole lot to do in defining security roles in a way that it will ensure checks and balances among the various security parastatals . The issue of police acting as a road safety officer, drug enforcement officer, economic crime officer etc when they are security agencies who ought to be responsible for the aforementioned should be openly criticized else her sister agencies will be rendered jobless in the nearest future.
A soldier should only apprehend and hand over to the police and not arrest and keep in the military guard room, the police should only pursue criminal cases and not civil, land disputes, economic crimes, road defaulters etc. If they come across such cases, I believe that it is in the interest of fair hearing and adherence to the rule of law that they should transfer such cases to the agency that has been empowered by law to take over, investigate such cases and charge to court where necessary instead of the police trying to do the job of it’s sister agencies as has always been the case in Nigeria.
More so, I will like to state that this security agencies are not the court of law where judgement can be given and appealed till a final judgement is gotten from the highest court in the land. This should not be the case among security agencies else the law will become biased and meant to favor the rich at the expense of the poor in the society. For instance, Mr A reports Mr B to a divisional police station. Mr B is invited/arrested and granted bail but while investigation is on going, Mr B petitions Mr A to the commissioner of police (state CID). They (state CID) invite/arrest Mr A and collect bail bond and probably ask that the case be transferred to them. A typical example of a complainant becoming an accused. Is that not an eyesore, total abuse of power and mockery of our security system?. If that is the case then the divisional police stations are totally useless as a complainant there could easily become an accused in a bigger police station.
Is every station not supposed to have autonomy, is every station not supposed to be reserved with the right to investigate and charge to court without interference from bigger stations. This sort of issue is a threat to our democracy and makes it look like obvious favoritism in our system which is designed only to favour people that can afford to fund cumbersome process of filling petition to the commissioner’s office.
This are issues that we see as minor and probably overlook but are very important issues that are eating deep into the fabric of our nation and responsible for the countless number of innocent citizens that are serving jail terms in so many prisons across the nation.
The law should be unambiguous on issues that should warrant transfer of cases and the same law should allow divisional police stations to investigate cases without unnecessary interference. I feel it is unfair for cases that have already been reported to be further petitioned in another station especially as the police station is not a court of law that has to pass through such rigorous process.
Thank you.
gbaba's Blog 