By Douglas Ogbankwa

• Peace is not just the absence of war, but the presence of justice

Forget about the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of States. There is a lot of injustice being perpetrated in the Nigeria Criminal Justice System. As a matter of fact, injustice is a huge industry on which corrupt investigators and corrupt prosecutors thrive.

Do you know that an investigator in Nigeria can invite you to the Police Station and within 24 hours you will be remanded in prison custody – just like that? There is no rule that guides the remand. Once the process starts, the focus – for some and not all – involved is how you will get to prison. It surprises me how it is easy to remand Nigerians in prison and how Nigerians like seeing their brothers and sisters in prison.

The other day, in a surprising and unprecedented case, a daughter that lives abroad had concluded plans to remand her mother and brother in prison over family squabbles. The brother happens to be my electrician and My Noble Lord, looking at the merit of the case, granted them bail, after minutes of back and forth between me and the Police Lawyer.

Investigators in Nigeria are imbued with amazing powers. The powers are so much because the Police and other Security Agencies ‘story’ is the official account of any event or issue. This is why those who run the Police and other security agencies must bring some check on the amazing powers of investigation they possess.

This is important, because some times in Nigeria, ‘The Law is too strong to catch the weak and too weak to catch the strong.’ We must make laws and rules to limit the endless powers of investigators and provide do’s and don’ts in investigation activities. Again, once it is shown that an investigator is ‘Perverse,’ the hammer should fall on that investigator. Let someone be held specifically accountable should an investigation go wrong. The current issue of lack of supervision being used to drag in their bosses should stop. You should be accountable for your action personally, because you know the difference between wrong and right.

I have seen several perverse investigation reports, so perverse that it will make the sailor’s boy blush. I have seen a case where a suspect who came from Europe was arraigned for burning his own house. In that matter he was both the complainant and the suspect.

I have seen a case where there when were 3 Petitioners in a matter and one suspect. The perverseness of the investigation was so profound that the investigator did not hide his bias from the beginning of his report till the end. The Investigator even had the boldness to say the Petition of two of the Petitioners were not investigated and he wrote a report without investigating one party, making him a biased investigator. He is emboldened by his impunity, because despite several petitions against him he has not been disciplined, even when his actions are at variance with all rules and laws on police business in Nigeria.

I have seen a case where, in an investigation report, the good Samaritan who rescued a person that was attacked on the road was charged for the murder of that person. He ended up in prison for 4 months.

A person who is a lawyer sees a gun on the road and brought it to State CID as a good citizen and he was arrested for bringing the gun to the station. However, a good investigator straddled logic together to say that it is not possible for the lawyer to be the owner of the gun, because if he was, he will not bring it to the station. This was however, with the intervention of the Nigerian Bar Association, the lawyer got off the hook.

The rules of investigation should be made a Law by the National Assembly. This is the only way it can have the force of law.

However, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and the Laws of the States provide for suing perverse investigators who have turned justice on its head; that way, you can upturn an investigation report and get damages against the investigator.

Citizens should be encouraged to take up their rights while lawyers should do such matters either pro bono or with reduced fees, to allow for the development of our laws.

It is important we do the right thing, because we do not know who will be next. Any society that grows, grows on strong systems and not strong men. The men who run this system should also, like Caesar’s Wife, be above board.

Any Investigation Report you write is a report of your activities in the Agency you operate in. At the end of the day, it is your name that is on the report, not the people asking you to do what you do to pervert justice. So be careful not to sign anything that will bring odium and opprobrium to you and your family name.

The Police is like an angel between God and Man. You serve as a gate-way for good or bad. Whatever you do is your choice. Make no mistake about it, whether in service or retirement, the society knows who is who.

• Douglas Ogbankwa is a Benin-based lawyer and prolific writer

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