Abuse Of Holding Charge By Police

Law enforcement has a well-earned reputation for resisting change, especially when the change threatens to control law enforcement behaviour. If indeed the use of public opinion forms part of the measures in which police relies upon in gauging the peoples feelings about police activities, then police authority is hereby advised to set a new compliance standard for the arraignment of suspect(s) on holding charge regarding the case of murder or armed robbery incidents. Function checklists is necessary to outline various points which must be strictly adhere to before taken any suspects to magistrate courts on holding charge especially in the case of murder or armed robbery allegations.

Since armed robbery or murder are capital offences, a careful perusal of the entire facts as contained in the case file must be carried out first by the police legal department and recommendation made either to release the suspect(s) on bail or not before taking the suspect(s) to court on holding charge and the subsequent duplication of case file before forwarding it to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

There are essential ingredients which must be proved beyond reasonable doubt to establish a case of murder or armed robbery, where there is no evidence to link the suspect(s) with the offence of murder or armed robbery and the ingredients stated can not be established except that the armed robbery or murder occurred, the suspect(s) should be granted bail by the police before forwarding the case file to the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for legal advice.

This is necessary because prosecution is duty bound to prove all the ingredients of armed robbery or murder and the absence of one of these elements is fatal to the prosecutions case. The system whereby the suspect(s) are just arraigned before a magistrate on holding charge and remanded in prison custody is not fair. To me it is illegal and unconstitutional. Police should discontinue with this arbitrary arraignment of suspect(s) on holding charges.

I am not one of those cranks who delight in pitying the living at the expense of the dead, or who clamour for mercy for the prisoners and forget his/her victim.

Holding charge means a process whereby police will take a suspect(s) to court requesting the magistrate to remand the suspects indefinitely in prison custody without formal charge.

The result of this holding charge is that the individual can be remanded in prison custody more or less indefinitely in a legal limbo based on little more than mere suspicion of criminal activity, without any evidence. This is contrary to our legal belief in the tentative innocent of an accused person(s) until proved guilty. The accused person(s) in this case are presumed guilty until proved innocent by the DPP or court.

This is one of the reasons why we have extremely high rates of individuals who are on awaiting trial in our prisons who have not been formally charged, a situation that can endure for a decade and beyond. It is an insidious but pervasive practice which shields police inefficiency and severely punishes the innocent persons. Holding charges are used and abused where necessary. The problem of our police in these cases are compounded by the stinking corruption which appears to be ingrained in almost all it’s officers both senior and junior ones.

If all detainees who ever complained about the fairness of police in their cases were released, the entire Nigerian prisons would be empties overnight. In most cases, the allegation of murder or armed robbery were not sufficiently proved to meet the required standard of proof beyond all reasonable doubt in a criminal case before police arraigned the suspect(s) to court on holding charge.

There are circumstances where there is no clear connection between the suspect(s) and the commission of the crime in which police are detaining the suspect(s) for, and their arrest, the decision by the police abinitio to say the suspect(s) are responsible are not thoroughly investigated by the police. Though this does not necessarily absolve the suspect(s) of any guilt, but there has to be a credible basis for the continuous detention beyond hearsay.

Section 4 of the police act says “The police have discretion whether or not to conduct investigation into any allegation of crime reported to them”. The law also specifies that such arrest shall be on “reasonable suspicion” The arrest and detention should be guided by the ethics of the police profession and within the ambit of the law.

If on the facts of a particular case, the discretion is properly used, the court will not interfere, it is only very obvious and exceptional circumstances that the court may intervene with police discretion.

The current practice, where police will not conduct any serious investigation instead the suspects will be arrested and detained for months only to be taken to court on holding charge is one of the factor that is responsible for the sullied image of the police. There are so many cases, where the suspect have no link with the crime, perhaps the suspect(s) were just apprehended on the street during raids and if you can not bribe as demanded by the police, you will be taken to court on holding charge and the suspect(s) will be remanded in prison custody pending the outcome of DPP’s legal advice.

Many Nigerians also have a feeling of distrust towards the police that genuine cases are compromised due to bribery and corruption. There are cases where facts of the case are systematically concealed by the police and the files submitted to the DPP are wholly inadequate to base a prosecution, thereby criminals are left off the hook through DPP’s legal advice.

Another example of unlawful exercising of authority was the pronouncement of the Kogi state’s commissioner of Police, Mr. John Abakasanga at Lokoja on the 23rd day of March 2011, that any political thug arrested during April general election would be charged for armed robbery. He said this during the stakeholders meeting at Lokoja.

(PMNEWS 24th March 2011, pg5).

That statement unwittingly confirmed that police can charge any person for armed robbery if they wish to and what that means is that any person arrested for any offence that time even if it is an assault, the person may be arraigned to court on holding charge of armed robbery.

Another scenario is where police evidently recognizing that the circumstantial evidence against the suspect(s) could not be possibly be stretched so far enough to include the suspect(s) as a consenting party to the crime, all police need do is to arrange one discreditable person to make statement and implicate you by confirming your presence at the scene of the crime. If you can not pay the amount of bribe demanded, the amount that is well beyond the capacity of average Nigerian, the next step is to arraigned you on holding charge of armed robbery and be remanded in prison custody for years pending the outcome of legal advice from DPP.

Because of this illegal actions of the police, a great number of people are suddenly thrown into severe financial crisis that erodes a standard of living which they have accustomed to. Police does not care about the unmerited suffering and for the destitution to which unjust actions might reduce the dependants of the suspect(s).

Police made so many people to suffer for crime which they are wholly innocent.

In 2006 one Taiwo Odesola’s handbag was snatched by a thief at Agege Ogba. Taiwo shouted thief and the thief was caught, her handbag was returned to her, thereafter jungle justice was meted out to the thief by irate mob which is beyond her control anyway.

The thief was killed. Taiwo Odesola was arrested by the police and arraigned on holding charge and she was subsequently detained in prison custody. The DPP’s legal advice that exonerated her came too late as she had already died. Can you imagine.

This is political era and this type of irresponsible actions on the part of police is commonly used to cage the political opponent. Just like the case of senator Akpanudodehe and the police in Akwa Ibom state when ACN decried police role. Alhaji Lai Mohammed said “it is obvious to all that the reason senator Akpanudodehe is being constantly threaten with prosecution over a phantom murder case is to stifle political opposition in the state and decimate all opposition to equally culpable governor Godswill Akpabio” .(PMNEWS Thur. 14 October, 2010. pg 5)

This is just a tip of the iceberg, as I would have chronicle a barrage of atrocities committed by the police.

The test of police efficiency is the absence of armed robbery in the country, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it. If police authority is tired of image battering by the members of public, any officer who failed to purge the force of brutality and unethical conducts should be sanctioned.

•Prince Mukaila Apata-Akinsemoyin