This is the ship where the Nigerian Navy has kept 10 Nigerians without trial since October 27, 2018. Photo credit: Femi Falana
By Ademola Adegbamigbe
There is a triangular was going on among the Nigerian Navy, the National Human Rights Commission and Mr Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights fighter. This is over the detention without trial of 67 individuals by the Nigerian Navy. This is something the National Assembly should wade into in the interest of human freedom and rights.
Falana, in a recent statement, entitled, “Names of All Detainees Should Be Published By Detaining Authorities” said, last week, that his law firm submitted a petition to the National Human Rights Commission wherein they complained about the illegal and prolonged detention of 67 Nigerians by the authorities of the Nigerian Navy. Following the publication of the contents of the said petition by the media, a number of the family members and friends of the majority of the detainees have reached out to the law firm. Since the detainees were arrested by armed and masked naval personnel in mufti without any warrant of arrest and incarcerated incommunicado, Falana revealed that it was thought by many family members that the detainees had been abducted and killed by hardened kidnappers.
The most pathetic case, according to him, is that of Ms Grace Inyang who was arrested in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by masked naval personnel on 27 October 2018, driven to Abuja and dumped in an underground cell at the detention facility of the Defence Intelligence Agency. “She was however transferred to the NNS Beecroft detention centre at Apapa, Lagos last week for further incarceration,” Falana protested, adding that even though the lady has spent 295 days in detention, “the detaining authorities have not informed her of any criminal offence allegedly committed by her neither has she been allowed to communicate with her relatives.”
Falana added that by not notifying the family members and relatives of the detainees of their arrest and places of detention the authorities of the Nigerian Navy have wilfully violated section 6 (2) (b) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 which has imposed a duty on all detaining authorities to notify the next of kin or relative of every suspect of the arrest at no cost to the suspect.
In fact, that section 6 which deals with “Recording of Arrest and confessional , states: “The Act makes provisions for mandatory record of personal data of an arrested person in section 15. Subsection 2further provides that the process of recording arrest shall be concluded within a reasonable time, not exceeding forty-eight hours. Section 15(4) of the Act provides that where a suspect volunteers to make a confessional statement, the confessional statement shall be in writing or may be electronically recorded on a retrievable video compact disc or such other audio visual means. However, an oral confession of an arrested suspect may also be admissible in evidence.”
Falana said further: . The illegality of the detention of the 67 people is compounded by the fact that the authorities of the Nigerian Navy have no powers under the Armed Forces Act to detain persons who are not subject to service law.”
Part 111 of the document states: “Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, regulations made under this section may provide for the duties, functions and powers of the Chief of Defence Staff and the respective Service Chiefs.8. Operational use of the Armed Forces(1) The President shall determine the operational use of the Armed Forces, but may, under general or special directives, delegate his responsibility for the day-to-day operational use-(a) of the Armed Forces, to the Chief of Defence Staff;(b) of the Army, to the Chief of Army Staff;(c) of the Navy, to the Chief of Naval Staff; and(d) of the Air Force, to the Chief of Air Staff.(2) It shall be the duty of the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff and the Chief of Air Staff, as the case may be, to comply with any directive given to them by the President under subsection (1) of this section.(3) In this section,”operational use of the Armed Forces”includes the operational use of the Armed Forces in Nigeria for the purpose of maintaining and securing public safety and public order.”
The question now remains, is the Navy acting within the function “of maintaining and securing public safety and public order”? As a branch of the Armed Forces, its essential duty is to protect the nation’s territorial integrity, especially in the littoral regions of Nigeria, the way the Army guides the land and Air Force the sky. In a situation where civilians who allegedly committed crimes are detained by the Navy in two frigates in Apapa and Marina, then analysts believe it is usurping the powers and functions of the Police or Judiciary. It is just like a scenario where the powers of the UK courts and the Metropolitan Police are taken over by the British Admiralty!
Below is Mr Falana’s full statement:
NAMES OF ALL DETAINEES SHOULD BE PUBLISHED BY DETAINING AUTHORITIES
Last week, we submitted a petition to the National Human Rights Commission wherein we complained about the illegal and prolonged detention of 67 Nigerians by the authorities of the Nigerian Navy. Following the publication of the contents of the said petition by the media, a number of the family members and friends of the majority of the detainees have reached out to us. Since the detainees were arrested by armed and masked naval personnel in mufti without any warrant of arrest and incarcerated incommunicado it was thought by many family members that the detainees had been abducted and killed by hardened kidnappers.
The most pathetic case is that of Ms Grace Inyang who was arrested in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by masked naval personnel on October 27, 2018. She was driven to Abuja and dumped in an underground cell at the detention facility of the Defence Intelligence Agency. She was however transferred to the NNS Beecroft detention centre at Apapa, Lagos last week for further incarceration.
Even though the lady has spent 295 days in detention the detaining authorities have not informed her of any criminal offence allegedly committed by her. Neither has she been allowed to communicate with her relatives.
The 56 men in the same detention facility at Apapa have been abandoned by the detaining authorities! Similarly, no one has attended to the other 10 citizens who have been detained inside a vessel in Marina, Lagos for the past 13 months.
By not notifying the family members and relatives of the detainees of their arrest and places of detention the authorities of the Nigerian Navy have wilfully violated section 6 (2) (b) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 which has imposed a duty on all detaining authorities to notify the next of kin or relative of every suspect of the arrest at no cost to the suspect.
It is pertinent to note that the authorities of the Nigerian Navy have also continued to ignore court orders for the unconditional release of 15 out of 67 detainees including Navy Captain Dada Labinjo being detained at the underground cell of the Defence Intelligence Agency at Abuja.
Since the detention of the 67 citizens for several months without trial cannot be justified under sections 35 and 36 of the Nigerian Constitution the Nigerian Navy ought to release them without any further delay. The illegality of the detention of the 67 people is compounded by the fact that the authorities of the Nigerian Navy have no powers under the Armed Forces Act to detain persons who are not subject to service law. However, if there is evidence that they have committed economic crimes they should be transferred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to prosecute them.
Finally, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to direct all detaining authorities in Nigeria to publish the names of all detainees and their places of detention and prohibit the Police and other security forces from subjecting Nigerians to any form of incommunicado detention.
Femi Falana SAN.