The Governor of Imo State Sen. Hope Uzodinma has signed the Imo State Administration of Criminal Justice ACJL 2020, with some sections of the law authorizing him to detain citizens at his “pleasure”. The Bill was sponsored by the Minority Leader of Imo State House of Assembly, Hon. Barr. Frank Ugboma, has come under intense public scrutiny after sections 484 and 485 were exposed.
Specifically, section 484 of the Administration of Criminal Justice law reads, “Where any person is ordered to be detained during the Governor’s pleasure he shall notwithstanding anything in this Law or in any other written law contained be liable to be detained in such place and under such conditions as the Governor may direct and whilst so detained shall be deemed to be in legal custody”.
This section has thrown up an avalanche of criticism against the law, as Imo is a state governed under Nigerian laws and as such, the “governor’s pleasure” should be inconsequential in criminal justice administration in Imo state. However, more careful look at the law further revealed more shocking sections that target solely, stifling the liberty and rights of Imo people guarantee by relevant sections of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria, as amended.
Also, section 485 of the Imo state law provides as follows;
(i) A person detained during the Governor’s pleasure may at any time be discharged by the Governor on license.
(ii) A license under subsection (1) of this section may be in such form and may contain such conditions as the Governor may direct.
(iii) A license under this section may at anytime be revoked or varied by the Governor and where the license has been revoked the person to whom the license relates shall proceed to such place as the Governor may direct and if he fails to do so, maybe arrested without a warrant and taken to such place.
In effect, the Governor has been granted the power to banish people from Imo state. With these provisions, the governor can determine wholly for his personal purposes, who resides in Imo or Owerri, for absolutely no other reason aside from that he simply does not want such person in Imo or Owerri, as the case may be.
However, in a rather twist of event, the Chief Sponsor of the Bill, Barr. Ugboma in a statement released by his office, which was signed by him, expressed shock at the contents of sections 484 and 485 of the said law. According to him, “This was not the Bill I presented and sponsored”.
Furthermore, Barr. Frank Ugboma the sponsor of the Bill reiterated that sections 484 and 485 contained in the law are completely strange as the law he sponsored which went through the laid down processes of law making, has only about 372 sections. “For the avoidance of doubt, the Bill I presented had about a total of 372 Sections. How and where it was amended, recreated, and reshaped into Section 484 and beyond remains a mystery and a legislative wonder of our time as what I presented and circulated to my colleagues during plenary, both in the First and Second readings did not contain such obnoxious and embarrassing Section 484. Neither was it deliberated in the House Committee of the whole. It indeed never existed in the House”, a statement by Hon. Frank reads.
Going further, the member said that it has become impossible to explain how those sections entered the bill. “No one has been able to explain to the members of the 9th House how and at what stage the said Section 484 was inserted into the Bill. It smacks of an evil manipulation to throw Imo people into the dungeon”.
Barr. Frank further revealed that he has commenced action for the immediate amendment of those sections by the Imo State House of Assembly. “I have today forwarded a Bill for the immediate amendment of those offensive and draconian sections”.
He is a Technical Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, whoonce was a Special Adviser to a former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. Ebuka is a second class upper division graduate of Political Science from University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science with specialization in Government and Development Studies, from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigeria
