When Will The Police Begin To See A Suspect As Innocent Until Proven Guilty? -By Isaac Asabor

If there is any principle in law that is a common knowledge to both lawyers and non-lawyers, it is that of seeing a suspect as innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. There is no denying the fact that presumption of innocence has been described as a “golden thread” that runs through criminal law. It is a standard of law that is protected by legal systems. In fact, the presumption of innocence is crucial to ensuring a fair trial in individual cases, to protecting the integrity of the justice system, and to respecting the human dignity of people who are accused of committing crimes.

Despite the foregoing, in practice, violations of this important legal principle are common. It is not absurd to say that the issue of Gestapo-like manner of arrest has become the norm in the country. For instance, Nigerians will not forget in a hurry how the present governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai was arrested in 2011 by some officials of our security agencies. The arrest was not only unwarranted but condemnable. The way and manner he was arrested also showed that some of our security officials were yet to do away with the siege mentality of the military dictators that held sway in the country before the advent of democracy.

As gathered, El -Rufai was coming into the country from overseas and in a gestapo-like manner was accosted by State Security Service (SSS) operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and whisked away to their headquarters to answer questions on what security officials referred to as his seditious comments in his column in ThisDay newspaper days before.  Ostensibly transferring his aggression to the media, 4 years later, he paradoxically picked on a Journalist, Jacob Dickson, who was held in pre-trial detention on incitement charges.

In the same vein, it would be recalled that in 2016 that the homes of at least 7 judges were raided by security personnel prompting Nigerians to argue that the secret police’s “Gestapo-like” approach was antithetical to democracy and the rule of law.

Despite the unarguable infraction of law, the Senate at the time failed to summon the secret police chief to explain the operation, the first of its kind in the country’s history. Instead, it called on security agencies to “stay within the limits” of the law in carrying out their operation.

Without denying the fact, the seeming institutionalization of Gestapo-style of arrest might had emboldened fourteen persons who were eventually arrested in connection with the siege on Justice Mary Odili’s apartment in Abuja.

Some of the suspects cut across a fake Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Lawrence Ajodo; a contributing editor with one of the national dailies, Stanley Nkwazema, and an Islamic scholar.

In a similar vein, public appetite for sensation, real-crime, real-time stories places enormous pressure on public authorities and the media to violate the presumption of innocence. Against the foregoing unfortunate background, the presumption of innocence is not been balanced against other aspects of the right to a fair trial (such as the principle of open justice) and other human rights (such as free speech).

The question, “When will the police begin to see a suspect as innocent until proven guilty?” which is invariably the inspiration behind this piece, came about due to ignoble way and manner Mr. Uche Nwosu, a son-in-law to former Governor Rochas Okorocha, was whisked away by security agents at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Eziama-Obaire, Nkwerre Local Government Area of Imo State on Sunday, December 26, 2021. It was gathered that the heavily-armed security operatives stormed the church with high-powered security vehicles and shot sporadically into the air before arresting Nwosu.

Without doubt, it is unarguably becoming the norm for suspects to be publicly humiliated, the way it was done to Nwosu, at the time of their arrest. Also, Nigerians are used to suspects being humiliated at the time of been conveyed to and from court with “Black Maria” and handcuffed even when such suspect has not being proven by the court of law to be guilty.  In courts, too, it is common for suspects to be restrained (even placed in boxes) when there is no justification for that. This can cause irreversible damage to a suspect’s reputation and can also affect judgments about a person’s guilt or innocence. Even robust rules governing how suspects are presented in public and in court do not always prove effective in practice, including because of the huge public appetite for these images.

Given the flurry of condemnation that trailed Nwosu’s arrest in the Church, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that the unbelievable happened in Imo State on Sunday, December 26, 2021. It was unbelievable because it was reported that Security Operatives numbering over 30, stormed St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Eziama, Obaire, Nkwerre LGA, and arrested him.  Nwosu, who buried his mother, Mrs. Jemimah Nwosu, on December 22, after a funeral service in the same Church, was there for a Thanksgiving outing service in the same Church.

Eye witnesses still cannot believe what happened. They said while the Church Service was going-on, the security operatives drove into the premises in several cars, some parked outside, and started shooting sporadically. Confusion reigned. People, including the Clergy, ran helter-skelter, scampering for life. Others screamed. They made quickly for their target, and whisked him away in a vehicle.

Besides being presumed to be guilty before trial, it is enough to say that the sanctity of the church is no more respected in this part of the world all in the name of carrying out the arrest of a suspect.  For the sake of clarity, the house of God, which is invariably the Church is built to the honour of God’s holy name, with much unanimity and dispatch, through the favor of divine providence. Not only that, it is devoted, set apart and dedicated, to the more solemn, public and immediate worship and service of the one supreme Lord of the universe.

At this juncture, it is expedient to say that it is not enough for the Imo State Government to perfunctorily apologize, as has being done. There is need for a law to restrain security agents from engaging in such unholy act in future. The law should be initiated by the lawmakers in the State, and expediently passed, and signed into law by Governor Hope Uzodinma into law. After all, Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 11, Amplified Bible (AMP), says “Because the sentence against an evil act is not executed quickly, the hearts of the sons of men are fully set to do evil”.