Wike: Court declares police probe panel illegal

JUSTICE Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday declared as illegal, the 15-man probe panel constituted by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris to investigate the violence, killings, destruction of property and other criminal activities that took place during and after the December 10, National Assembly re-run election in Rivers State.

Delivering judgement on the suit filed by Rivers State government and Governor Nyesom Wike (1st and 2nd plaintiffs) on January 11, 2017, Justice Kolawole said the, “the Police panel was unknown to law” because it lacked constitutional backing.

Consequently, the court held that the report of the panel is not valid and was of doubtful source.

According to Justice Kolawole, it remains to be seen whether the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), would prosecute those indicted by the Police probe panel based on a report that is illegal.

“The Police panel is unknown to Nigerian criminal justice system. It is a contraption. The said report is unknown to law and its validity to be used by the AGF to press a charge is in great doubt,” the court said.

According to Justice Kolawole, it was wrong for the IGP to constitute a Police panel that had the DSS as member and added that under Section 11 of Police Act, the IGP requires Presidential assent to delegate power to another prosecutorial agency.

“The special multi agency panel is not a statutory body but a product of ministerial act.”

Though the court agreed that the IGP, in line with Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 4 of the Police Act that police can conduct investigation of any crime, however said such duty must be carried out in strict adherence to the law.

In addition, the court said it would have quashed the report but for the fact that it was not pleaded before it and added that, “The report was not presented before the court, if not, it would have been quashed.”

More so, the court held that there was no merit in the second defendant’s (DSS) preliminary objection on grounds of jurisdiction and consequently, dismissed it.

Wike had approached the court with a suit seeking, among other reliefs, to stop the Police boss from investigating the complaints, allegations, petitions of crimes and various acts of criminality during the December 10, 2016 rerun elections in Rivers State.