The EFCC and OAU Students Saga.
The month of November 2023 kicked off with unfortunate news about the arrest of 69 students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun state. Let’s dive a little into the reason and circumstances of their arrest.
What happened?
The students were arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for suspected internet fraud during a raid on hostels outside the university campus.
Following their arrest, OAU students led a protest to the EFCC office in Ibadan, expressing their disappointment at the actions of the anti-graft agency.
Eventually, 58 students were released and their names were published in several nationwide newspapers, making the headlines.
What are the issues?
There are several issues surrounding the arrest of the students, some of which include;
the midnight operation of the security agency colloquially referred to as “sting operation”;
the forceful entrance into the school premises without the knowledge or permission of the university management;
the apparently random apprehension of students with or without probable cause; and
the media parade of the arrested students.
These are all important issues to analyze – alas, we only have time in today’s newsletter to discuss one of these issues – we are therefore focusing on the media profiling of the arrested students. Is it legal? Does it contravene their human rights?
Let’s examine it together, shall we?
Media Parades of suspects – Is it legal?
Almost every other day, the news is filled with stories about several persons arrested as suspects for various crimes, mostly internet fraud and its variants. The names of these people are usually published, sometimes with pictures of them packed together, sometimes in handcuffs, being made to sit on the floor or in one dehumanizing position or the other.
Though not yet charged with committing a crime, these suspects are (if it turns out that they are innocent) at risk of being socially stigmatized as a result of publicly tagging them as potential criminals.
In the case of these OAU undergraduates, a Google search of any of their names by a potential employer in the future would bring this incident to light and potentially portray them as persons having criminal tendencies. This is often the consequence of parading suspects in the media.
Without any formal charge brought against a suspect, he/she is as good as any other citizen, merely cooperating with the Police to get to the root of an unsolved crime.
But when a suspect is charged with a crime, he/she becomes an accused person . Under Section 36(5) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Section 8(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 puts it this way:
A suspect shall:
Be accorded humane treatment, having regard to his right to the dignity of his person; and
Not be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.
Does publishing the names of persons who are yet to be formally charged with an offense, qualify as “degrading treatment?”
The court has held that it does! In 2019, human rights lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, filed a suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking an order to stop the pre-trial media parade of crime suspects by law enforcement agencies.
The Inspector General of Police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Custom Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigerian Navy, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, and the Attorney-General of the Federation were joined as respondents in the suit.
The senior advocate argued that the pre-trial media parade of criminal suspects was a violation of the suspects’ right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
He added that by virtue of sections 2 (1) and 2 (2) (b) of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017 the pre-trial media parade of the suspects amounted to psychological and mental torture and other various forms of torture prohibited by the Act.
In August 2022, the court ruled in favour of the claimant, outlawing the parade of suspects by security agencies in Nigeria, stating that a court order must be obtained in order to do so.
Although there is no statute to this effect, neither has the matter been determined by the Appeal Court or the Supreme Court, the ruling of the Federal High Court as stated above, is the current position of the law, which ought to be upheld nationwide.
Now that the students’ names have been published in the media, what can be done?
The students can seek recourse in law by bringing a suit for defamation of character against the EFCC, demanding an apology, a retraction of the published statements as well as monetary compensation. They can sue individually or with others (by way of something called a class action).
To file a class action, there must be a common interest by all parties in the suit, a common grievance and common relief(s) sought which would be beneficial to all classes of persons involved.
A class action reduces the cost and burden of litigation, among other advantages. However, filing a class action involves waiving one’s right to bring an individual suit on the same subject matter.
Now you know the position of the law on the media parading of suspects! Interesting, isn’t it?
See you next week!
PS – Today’s newsletter was written by a new member of the Lawpadi team – Ikanke.
Best Regards,
The Lawpadi Team
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