- Femi Falana (SAN) said the act parading suspects by police is a breach of fundamental human rights
- The human rights lawyer urged the Nigeria police to stop the act
- He also advised the police to recall its officers guarding and protecting undeserving top public officers and some rogues
A renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has condemned the parade of suspects by the Nigeria police and urged them to put an end to it.
The Punch reports that Falana said this during a keynote address at the inauguration of the hearing of the SouthWest Zone Presidential Panel on the Special Anti-Robbery Squad Reform.
Legit.ng gathers that Falana said the act of parading criminal suspects by the police is against the principle of fair hearing and was a breach of the suspects’ fundamental human rights.
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The panel which is headed by the executive secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, was expected to look into the level of rights infringement by SARS operatives across the country.
“What the commission may want to look at is that the country is under-policed. We have less than 200,000 police that are actually policing over 200 million Nigerians because the rest of them (police) are guarding and protecting top public officers and some rogues.
“The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, must take cognisance of this; some men of questionable character go about with five policemen. They are the people who are to be questioned. We need more policemen and women to police our country,” Falana said.
The human rights activist also urged the panel to extend its work to the violations committed by other security outfits and called for the cooperation of Nigerians to expose any infraction on human rights in whatever form.
In his remarks, the executive secretary of NHRC, Ojukwu, said the reform would reshape the activities of SARS and allow probity into their operations.
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Meanwhile, frontline Nigerian journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Legit.ng, Bayo Olupohunda, has accused crime reporters of aiding brutality of crime suspects by the Nigerian police.
Olupohunda stated this in a tweet via his Twitter handle, @BayoOlupohunda, on Friday, May 18.
The prominent journalist stated that crime reporters aid brutality of suspects with the kind of implicating and prejudicial questions they ask crime suspects.
He also condemned the practice of parading suspects at police command and pronouncing them guiltybefore trial as unconstitutional.
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Lagos Police Commissioner parades suspected criminals (Nigeria News) | Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
