The assault on Barrister Olumide Sonupe

IT is ironic and saddening that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the lead agency of government in the maintenance of internal security and law enforcement, has consistently demonstrated inability to comply with or enforce its own rules of engagement. And this situation has caused it to be in the news for the wrong reasons time and again: extortion, bribery and corruption, willful violation of citizens’ rights and freedom and so on. The police are more often than not on the wrong side of the law, yet the agency’s enabling act contains ample provisions that forbid it from engaging in vices. The force is currently in the eye of the storm as some of its personnel allegedly maltreated and detained a lawyer in the line of duty at Mosalasi police station in Lagos. And in a knee-jerk reaction that is not typical of the police on issues verging on breach of the rule of law and violation of citizens rights, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police (CP) has reportedly sanctioned the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the police station, Austin Arase, for presiding over the brutalisation and humiliation of the lawyer. This prompt sanctioning of the erring DPO is a welcome development, but going forward, Nigerians will prefer proactive actions that ensure that lawyers and indeed innocent citizens are no longer brutalised by the police.

The Lagos-based lawyer, Olumide Sonupe, had gone to the police station to seek the bail of his client, a carpenter who had been detained over a civil matter bordering on a breach of contract dispute. However, the lawyer did not only fail to secure the bail of his client, he was held in the cell with his client from December 30, 2023 to January 1st, 2024! Olumide also claims that he was manhandled and forcibly stripped before being thrown in the cell for insisting that the matter was civil rather than criminal. CCTV footage is said to show police officers dragging him to the cell while removing his clothes. This is horrible. No citizen deserves to be dehumanised and humiliated by the police in the ordinary course of carrying out his/her legitimate duty, but to treat a lawyer with disdain and harshly at a police station while carrying out his duty is brazen, audacious and condemnable.

And the ignoble objective of the police in making a recourse to such a deplorable act was most probably to send a signal to his client that the lawyer is powerless and that only they could determine his fate. If the police had acted in ignorance and in order to ensure that justice was served, it would still have been wrong, but at least their motive would have been altruistic. However, it is evident that the affected lawyer was illegally detained on purpose, for trying to prevent the police from the illegality of oppressing and intimidating his client. The police that should ordinarily be collaborating with the lawyers in order to get justice for citizens to engender law and order in the society are known to loathe the presence of legal practitioners at police stations because lawyers would always interrogate the lord-of-the -manor role that the police are wont to assume.

The primary duty of a lawyer is to represent others and it is within the precincts of his/her duties to be called upon to bail clients in police custody. Indeed, in deference to the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, the police are not supposed to take the statement of anyone without the presence of a lawyer. That is what the law says. So, lawyers going to the police station is by law. Every detainee or invitee to the station is entitled to a lawyer. Consequently, to treat lawyers as if they are meddlesome interlopers and harass and beat them up at police stations is a lawless development that sends a dangerous message to the society. Put more pointedly, the penchant for insulting, harassing and humiliating lawyers at police stations while in the line of duty is in breach of the law. It is criminal and morally reprehensible. The police may be unprofessionally profiting, via ego boost and pecuniary gain, from their illegal attempt at abridging the course of justice by eliminating the roles of lawyers at the level of the police station. However, the illegal action ultimately has far-reaching and adverse implications for the society.

For instance, when you give the impression that lawyers are powerless and can be maltreated and humiliated with impunity, then people will no longer look up to them for representation. They will ultimately resort to self-help, which is a veritable recipe for anarchy. The police must handle this case professionally and ensure that justice is done. Nigeria should not be portrayed as a jungle or lawless clime where anything goes. Thus, the relevant authorities of the state must ensure that the proclivity for harassing and intimidating lawyers is not allowed to continue. Indeed, the fact that a DPO could supervise an open assault on a lawyer for performing the lawful duty of preventing the illegal detention of his client speaks eloquently to the truncation of the rule of law in the country at the moment. For how else could the rule of law be maintained and shown to be active if not through the activities of lawyers at appropriate times to stand for and prevent abuses? The seeming incapacity of the police to recognise the place of lawyers in the workings of the rule of law leaves a sour taste in the mouth, even as it also indicates, and sadly so, the depth of lawlessness by those who are expected to be officers of the law.

It is comforting to know that the Lagos State CP has already taken action against the concerned DPO, but that is not enough. Other personnel involved in the infamy must be investigated and punished. There is also a need for the entire police rank and file to come to the realisation that following the rule of law does not exclude them as police personnel. And there should always be consequences for self-sabotage which breaching the law they have the mandate to uphold and enforce. The logic is that like any other governmental institution, the police are a creation of the law and it is to be expected that the conduct of their personnel at every time will also be in line with the law. It would be a tragedy to see police personnel ordinarily in place to help enforce the law acting not just in contravention of the law, but actively working against the law as in the instant case. The police authorities have a duty to put in place adequate measures to forestall a recurrence of the incident. In addition, members of the public also need the assurance of the police authorities that they have enough guards in place to prevent police personnel from acting in such a dishonorable way towards them.