Human rights lawyer and activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has called on judges and chief magistrates to obey the law by regularly visiting detention facilities with a view of decongesting them.
The interim Chairman of the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond, made this call in a statement on Sunday. The statement is titled, ‘Special Appeal to Judges and Chief Magistrates to Conduct Monthly Inspection of All Police Stations and Other Detention Facilities in Nigeria’.
The senior advocate pointed out that Section 34 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 require chief judges of the Federal High Court, Federal Capital Territory High Court and State High Courts to designate judges and chief magistrates to conduct monthly visitation and inspection of all police stations and other detention facilities in all the states of the federation and the FCT.
He said that in spite of the directive of the National Judicial Council, the provision of the has not been complied with by many judicial authorities, hence, the consistent arrest, detention, and torture of citizens by the police and other security agencies.
The statement read in part, “However, the newly enacted Nigeria Police Act, 2020 has imposed a duty on all chief magistrates and judges to conduct monthly visitation and inspection of all police stations and other detention facilities within their territorial jurisdiction other than correctional centres. Specifically, Section 70 of the Act provides as follows:
“70 (1) The Chief Magistrate, or where there is no chief magistrate within the police division, any magistrate designated by the Chief Judge for that purpose, shall at least every month, conduct an inspection of police stations or other places of detention within his territorial jurisdiction other than the prison.”
According to the human rights lawyer, that law posits that during a visit, the magistrate may call for and inspect the record of arrest, direct the arraignment of suspect and where bail has been denied, grant bail to any suspect, where appropriate, if the offence for which the suspect is held is within the jurisdiction of the magistrate.
Falana added that it is now the responsibility of the judiciary to activate and implement the provisions of the law in order to stop the consistent arrest and prolonged detention of the Nigerian pupils without any further delay.
He said, “We are of the strong view that if all detention facilities in the country are henceforth regularly inspected by judges and chief magistrates as stipulated by the law, the people of Nigeria will no longer be subjected to illegal arrest and detention by the police and other security agencies.
“In particular, there will be no basis for #EndSARS and any similar campaign either now or in future. We are therefore compelled to call on judges and chief magistrates to carry out their duties under section 70 of the Police Act.”
Falana the urged the civil rights organizations and the Nigerian Bar Association to assign accredited representatives to accompany the judges and chief magistrates in the monthly inspection of the detention facilities.
