Ibrahim Idris |
An Ilorin High Court has summoned the Inspector-General of Police,
Ibrahim Idris, to appear before it next Wednesday to justify the
continued detention of Lekan Alabi, Personal Assistant to Kwara state
Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed, who was arrested over the April 5, 2018
armed robbery in Offa.
This followed protest by lead counsel to the suspect, Adelodun Ibrahim, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
He bemoaned the failure of the police to release another suspect over
the same incident, Alhaji Babatunde AbdulWahab, the Chief of Staff to
the governor, who has been granted bail by another high court in the state.
Adelodun, leading four other lawyers, told newsmen after Thursday’s
proceeding that the refusal of the police to obey the court order on
AbdulWahab was worrisome as it portends grave dangers to the deepening
of democracy and might lead to a loss of confidence in the fairness of
the police to handle such cases among the populace.
The police was not represented at the proceeding although Adelodun
told the court they had been served all the processes relating to the
case. The case was brought to Ilorin following the refusal of a Federal
High court in Abuja to hear it as the alleged crime was committed in
Kwara state.
Alabi has been in detention since May 28, 2018 and has not been
arraigned before any court of law, a development his counsel, Adelodun,
argued is in contravention of the provisions of Order 4, Rules 3 and 4
of the Fundamental Rights enforcement procedure rules (2009) as well as
Sections 34, 35, 36, 37, 41 And 46 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
In his ruling, Justice Adebayo Yusuf said there was nothing in the
constitution that allows the detention of a suspect without trial for a
period beyond 24 hours where there is a court or 48 hours in environment
where there is no court.
“The position of the law is as stated by the leaned silk, however I’m
inclined to hear from the respondent to come to court and show cause
why the applicant should not be released from their custody, since they
have been served the motion on notice,” the judge said, adding that it
is clear that the police cannot change the constitution.
Adelodun, had while moving the application, pointed out that the
detention of the applicant for 60 days without trial is a prima facie
case of a breach of his rights to liberty as enshrined in section 35 (7)
of the constitution and pointed out that Section 122 of the Evidence
Act empowers the court to take judicial notice of the time involved in
the exchange of written addresses and affidavit by parties which can
compound the suffering of the applicant.
“We are not asking the court to declare our client guilty or innocent
at this stage but the police has no right to keep a suspect forever”,
he said citing the decision of the Appeal Court in the case of EFCC vs
Akingbola, (2015 NWLR p1470,pgh249,pp290) to buttress his submission,”
Adelodun said.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Disclaimer: Comment expressed do not reflect the opinion of African Parliamentary News