The is no gainsaying the
fact that Nigeria is awash with unresolved criminal infractions and frivolous acquittal
of high profile suspects. This tendency casts aspersions on Nigeria's Security agencies
and the Judiciary whether or not they are directly complicit. According to Lord
Hewart (1870-1943), 'justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and
undoubtedly be seen to be done'. In the words of Martin Luther King, 'injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
It is a crime to allow an innocent person to rot in jail while the
guilty waltz free.
It beggars belief that judges in
Nigeria still take notes in long hand while their counterparts in other climes
use state-of-the-art gadgets to record court proceedings.
The Nigerian judiciary
alone cannot be blamed for spurious acquittals or miscarriage of justice. The
security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police encumbered with the
responsibility of investigating infringements shares part of the blame. In the light
of this, it is exigent that Nigeria's Security agencies be equipped with inter
alia, a comprehensive national crime (DNA) database, sex offenders database,
avant-garde police forensic laboratory and other state-of-the-art gadgets. The
dearth of a computerized nation-wide crime database accessible in real time
across the nook and cranny of Nigeria will be of immense help to the Security agencies.
For instance, there are reported cases of ex-convicts, notorious cultists
serving in Nigeria's Security agencies or dismissed Personnel's re-enlisting
into the same agency or a different one with altered credentials because of the
lack of an efficient nationwide mechanism to weed them out at the point of
entry. Such a database will also aid criminal record checks of prospective
employees-Private Security Operatives, Teachers, Carers, Bank staff amongst
others. The surge in rape cases and paedophilia in Nigeria calls for the
establishment of a child/sex offenders database as is the case in developed
countries.
If statements, case
files, records of evidence are digitalized, backed-up and safeguarded, it will
resolve the proclivity of such evidence mysteriously growing wings or getting
compromised prior to or in the middle of a trial. A compromised evidence or
evidence obtained outside the ambits of best practices cannot withstand
vigorous legal scrutiny.
Granted that Nigerian law
enforcement officers have their own shortcomings but training, re-training and
equipping them with the wherewithal will enhance their efficiency with a
resultant spin-off vis-à-vis ensuring that innocent suspects are quickly let
off the hook while guaranteeing that culpable suspects are not left out there
to roam the street with impunity.
It is a well established
fact that in a criminal trial, it is incumbent on the prosecution to prove its case
beyond reasonable doubt. It follows that a culprit can waltz free if the case
against him cannot be substantiated beyond reasonable doubt. An iota of
inconsistency, shoddy investigation, compromised evidence, wishy-washy
prosecution and a mix of shrewd defence amongst others, has the potency to
exonerate a suspect even when there are tell-tale signs the suspect is
complicit. A prospensity for potentially culpable suspects to be exonerated
through legal loopholes, extenuating circumstances though more pronounced in
Nigeria, is not just a Nigerian thing. A typical example in the United States
is the acquittal of 29-year old George Zimmerman for the second-degree murder
and manslaughter of 17-year old Trayvon Martin. Insinuations are rife that the
subsequent acquittal of Al Mustpha, Shofolahan and Bola Ige were products of
shrewd political permutations. Whether or not one concurs, it is a truism that
the judgment of an appellate court invalidates that of the lower court. Is it
not a travesty of justice for an accused to spend 14 years of his life behind
bars awaiting trial or been prosecuted for attempted murder only to be declared
innocent thereafter? Something is definitely wrong with such a judicial system!
If it were to be in Nigeria, Oscar Pistorious of South Africa would have spent decades
in jail awaiting trial for the cold-blooded murder of his girlfriend.
In Al-Mustapha's case,
the appelate court cited ‘shoddy investigation and prosecution’. The appellate
court in its judgement strongly berated the Nigeria Police for a tacky
investigation. In the words of the Judges, ‘’for an offence like murder, I
wonder why the Nigeria Police did not do a proper investigation’’. The
judgement went further to say, ‘’the prosecution’s case has gapy loopholes;
there are more questions than answers’’. This is not an isolated case of
the Nigeria Police been chided.
A while ago, the whistle
blowing website Wikileaks disclosed how the Nigeria Police struggled to cope
with the challenges of investigating and prosecuting suspected masterminds of
the gruesome murder of the late attorney general of the Federation, Chief Bola
Ige. According to a U.S Cable made public by Wikileaks, ‘’the investigators
were described as being ill-equipped and under-trained… especially in the
handling of evidence’’.
In 1995, Chief Alfred
Rewane was brutally hacked to death in his bed in Lagos. The Nigeria Police
arrested seven suspects five of whom died in detention because of the
protracted prosecution. Sixteen years after their arrest, the two surviving
suspects were discharged by a court for want of evidence against them. In
another similar case, it was reported that exhibits (blood samples, virtuous
humour of the eye amongst others) for the trial of the suspected killers of
Funsho Williams, a Lagos State gubernatorial candidate in 2007 were damaged
sequel to epileptic electricity supply at the Nigeria Police Forensic
Laboratory.
Another typical sloppy
investigation and embarrassing scenario is the assassination saga of Olaitan
Oyerinde, the late Principal Secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Olaitan’s
murder investigation pitched the Nigeria Police against the State Security
Service with a lot of finger pointing culminating in the Police and their
sister agency parading different sets of suspects for the same offence. With
this development, the investigation and successful trial of the potential
suspects appears to have been bungled ab initio. Please let our Security agencies
take steps to whittle inter-agency rivalry because this proclivity is a clog on
the wheel of crime fighting and justice.
Just to refresh your
mind, recall that notable assassinations like that of Dele Giwa, Chief Harry
Marshal, Dr. Ayo Daramola, Theodore Agwatu, Sunday Ugwu, Mr. and Mrs. Barnabas
and Amaka Igwe, Momoh Lawal, Rasak Ibrahim, Anthony Nwudu, Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi
amongst others remain unresolved. Nigerians will like to know precisely how and
what led to the deaths of the former Head of State- General Sani Abacha and
M.K.O Abiola. Was it the so-called "apple" and "tea" that
snuffed out life from the aforementioned geezers? Are these classified? If yes,
posterity will like to see them declassified.
Sometimes
ago, about 60 bodies were reportedly sighted floating on Ezu River in Amensea
Anambra State. Till date, there is no definite information as to what
transpired. We don’t need the expertise of rocket scientists to unravel the
circumstances surrounding these heinous killings. A global best practice would
have been to conduct an autopsy before burial. Yes, advances in DNA technology
can still piece together some forensic evidence after burial but many of the
evidence may have disappeared or unwittingly compromised especially when a
chain of custody is not properly maintained. If an autopsy establishes bullet
wounds on those bodies, are those bullet wounds compatible with Nigeria Police
Bullets or ammunitions? DNA evidence will also establish inter-alia the nature/cause
of death (strangulation, bullet injury etc) and the approximate time of death.
In advanced climes, this whole exercise will not take more than 96 hours!
Despite the brouhaha this incident generated, it is yet to be resolved.
The Ombatse Cult group
purportedly killed about 90 or so Police and State Security Service (SSS)
officers and several months thereafter, Nigerians are not aware any arrests
were made let alone prosecution. Instead of working round the clock to fish out
masterminds of this heinous crime, the Director General of the SSS was qouted to
have said the Service has forgiven Ombatse for killing its officers and men.
A penchant for
unsuccessful prosecutions, non-conviction of culprits especially when they are
indeed complicit, profoundly emboldens the perpetrators to continue dishing out
their trade with more alacrity and impunity.
In view of the plethora of unresolved
crimes in Nigeria, it is pressing that the Nigeria Police authorities put
together a ‘Cold Cases Department’. A lot of times, investigations are not
carried to a logical conclusion. Cases are swept under the carpet immediately
there is a change of leadership, transfer or death of the Police Officer
handling the case. The proposed Department will deal/brainstorm on unsolved Cases.
In Europe and America 100 year old incidents/cases are still been dusted up and
investigated because their government and the populace want to know the truth
and what transpired. A lot of times this have resulted in convicted criminals
been set free and the real culprits put behind bars because of new evidence and
advances in Science-DNA technology. With the help of DNA evidence and Carbon
dating, a piece of bone was lately used to identify King Richard III of England
500 years after his death! Just recently, a report from the United State's National
Registry of Exonerations, a project of the University of Michigan and Northwestern
University Law School indicate that the number of US convicts cleared of their alleged
crimes reached a record high in 2013.
In the light of this, we
need to take a cue from a few countries that are light years ahead of us in
crime fighting. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is said
to keep a National Crime Information Centre (NCIC). The NCIC maintains a
computerized index of Criminal justice information encompassing criminal record
history information, fugitives, stolen properties, missing persons amongst
others. The NCIC database is available in REAL TIME (computer systems that
update information at the same rate they receive information) to federal, state
and local law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies. It is also
operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. All information in the database is
protected from unauthorized access through appropriate administrative, physical
and technical safeguards such as alarm devices, passwords and encrypting data.
Similarly the United States department of justice coordinates a searchable
National Sex Offenders Public Website (NSOPW).
On their own, the United
Kingdom maintains a National DNA Database (NDNAD) and also a Violent and Sex
Offenders Register (ViSOR). The UK’s sex offender disclosure scheme allows
parents, Carers and guardians to formally ask the police to tell them if
someone has a record for child sexual offences.
A while ago, police in
Birmingham, West midlands, United Kingdom did a trial run of a high-tech mobile
fingerprint scanner named ‘’MobileID’’ which allows law enforcement agents to
obtain the fingerprint of a suspect on the street in seconds. The pocket-sized
gadget is linked via satellite to UK’s National Fingerprint Database and
instantly alerts officers if a scanned fingerprint belongs to a convicted
criminal. The concerns of Right groups and individuals are assuaged because
this device is only used to scrutinize prints against the National Database and
does not permanently store scanned images.
Advances in
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have revolutionized the concept
of law enforcement. In most advanced countries, rather than brandishing archaic
Ak47 rifles, it is common to see Police officers armed with Palmtops, Tablet
PC’s, and latest telecommunication gadgets on their beats with which they relay
information to their respective offices in real time.
With advances in military
technology-Kevlar, airborne lasers, antimatter weapons, case-less ammunitions,
electromagnetic weapons, and particle beam weapons, I cringe each time I see
our Police officers struggling to move swiftly with their ‘’heavyweight’’
bullet proof vests.
The illustrations from the
aforementioned countries are highlighted to buttress what the construct of
crime fighting should be in the 21st century. The aforementioned countries
should be our benchmark. This is not to say they don't have their challenges. Thanks
to Edward Snowden, the world now appreciates the sophistication of the American
intelligence and Law enforcement establishments.
Nigerian law enforcement officers
reportedly do well when they go for foreign operations but are incessantly found
wanting when they operate within the shores of Nigeria. It goes within saying
that environment plays a role. The Police are a microcosm of the larger
society, no wonder they are not divorced from the unprecedented corruption,
culture of impunity, inefficiency inherent in the larger Nigerian system.
Rather than chasing
shadows, buck-passing, and a gung-ho kneejerk approach to crime fighting,
Nigeria’s law enforcement authorities must be more proactive and less
reactionary. Our Law enforcement agencies must raise their game; adequate funding,
provision of state-of-the-art gadgets, ongoing training and re-training will help
them discharge their constitutional duties. Nigeria's legal system must be revamped
to make room for speedy trials. Until this is done, innocent people will continue
to wallow behind bars while the guilty will be out there dishing their trade with
impunity.
Written by:
Don Okereke
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