NHRC charges law enforcement agencies on prompt investigation, diligent prosecution

THE National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), in commemoration of the African Day of Pre-trial Detention has called on security and law enforcement agencies to jettison all practices leading to pre-trial detention in the course of discharging their duties.

The Acting Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mrs Oti Ovrawah, stated this in Abuja as Nigeria joins other African countries to mark the African Day of Pre-Trial Detention, which is observed on April 25 every year.

She called on law enforcement agencies to embrace the new world order of prompt investigation and diligent prosecution of those who are alleged to have come in conflict with the law, adding that using modern investigation gadgets will go a long way in eradicating coercion and torture as a means to extract information from crime suspects.

Mrs Ovrawah said the African Day of Pre-trial Detention was necessitated by the need to monitor the actions of criminal justice personnel from the moment of arrest until the end of trial.

She said it covers issues such as arrest and custody, safeguards for arrestees and defendants, measures to ensure law enforcement transparency and accountability, and ways to improve coordination between criminal justice institutions.

The acting NHRC boss said the constitutional safeguard, which stipulates that all accused persons are innocent until proven guilty should be the guiding principle of security agencies.

She observed that the challenging issues of insurgency and communal clashes in some parts of the country have put pressure on the operations of security agencies to the extent that some of them are accused of arbitrary arrest of citizens without recourse to relevant Rules of Engagement and International Human Rights Standards.

Mrs Ovrawah emphasised that despite the challenging circumstances under which they operate; law enforcement agencies must exhibit high level of transparency and accountability in dealing with suspects or those who are found on the wrong side of the law.

She said, “By so doing, we would avoid a situation where more than 70 per cent of prisons’ inmates are awaiting trial which is the worst form of pre-trial detention, she lamented.”