9th November, 2019
Mr Tony Ojukwu, Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, has urged law enforcement agencies to abide by the rule of law and refrain from disobeying court orders.
Ojukwu gave this advice while reacting to the alleged refusal of officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) to release on bail the social campaigner Omoyele Sowore after the order of his release by the trial court and his lawyers meeting the bail conditions.
The executive secretary who frowned on Sowore’s continued detention noted that disobedience of court order was an invitation to anarchy.
According to Ojukwu, many cases have been reported to the commission about investigating police officers and state security officers deliberately refusing or delaying to verify bail conditions following court orders just to punish the suspects unduly for reasons that are not constitutional.
He added that the constitution guarantees the innocence of every citizen of Nigeria until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.
” A situation where the order of courts are continuously disobeyed by security agents makes such security agents judges onto themselves and such situation does not augur well for our democracy.
“It makes the law uncertain at any point in time and leads to loss of confidence of the people in government and state institutions of which the judiciary is one.
” A situation like this can also lead to self help thereby creating more problems for law enforcement agents and threaten the precarious situation of state responsibility to respect, protect and fulfill human rights in the country” he said.
He therefore called for renewed commitment on the part of law enforcement agents to submit to constituted authority and release all detainees who have met their bail conditions as ordered by the courts of the land.