We Hold Your Brief
Dear Counsel, Attention needs to be drawn to the way and manner our policemen go about molesting citizens, in the name of arresting suspects.
An incident that happened two weeks ago, is one that has left me thinking about what kind of training these policemen are given, before being unleashed on the society. At a lounge where I occasionally come to relax after work, a lady came in with her boyfriend to have drinks. They left after a few hours, and thereafter, some police officers stormed the place and started harassing the staff of the lounge. The accusation was that, the lady’s iPhone was stolen by the barman who served them drinks.
They asked the barman to come with them to police station, which he willingly agreed to. To our utter dismay, as he was walking with them to their waiting van outside, they suddenly started kicking and pushing him towards the van. The barman didn’t resist or object to their invitation, but they rough handled him, for no just cause. Do they have a right to this?
I felt so disgusted, when after serious questioning behind the counter at the police station, the irresponsible lady later called to say they found the phone in the back seat of her boyfriend’s car. P.I., Kubwa, FCT. Dear P.I., I agree with you absolutely, that Nigerians need to be educated about their civic rights.
To answer your question directly, the police do not have the right, to rough handle any citizen who is not resisting arrest. Every citizen is constitutionally entitled to the dignity of his human person. This is deeply enshrined in the Constitution.
But most importantly, Section 4 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 201, provides for Arrest Without Touch or Confinement of Body of Suspect. It provides specifically that ‘A police officer, while making an arrest, has a right to touch or confine the body of his suspect. Such right cannot be exercised, where a suspect submits himself to the police officer in words or action’. Where a suspect offers to walk and walks quietly with an arresting police officer into the police vehicle, it would be unlawful for the police office to hold, push or even touch the suspect while purportedly effecting the arrest.
The Act further provides in Sections 27 and 28, for compensation for victims of such police excesses. You may advice the barman, to approach his Lawyer to explore this option. He didn’t deserve such raw deal, in the hands of those who are supposed to protect him, especially as it turned out to be a false accusation and he did not resist arrest.