Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Dr Chidi Anslem
Odinkalu, was on Tuesday, grilled for five hours by authorities of the
Nigerian Police Force, NPF, following his allegation that the police
summarily execute over 5000 detainees every year.
Vanguard investigations revealed that the interrogation took place in
the office of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police responsible for
Force Criminal Investigation Department, (DIG-FCID), inside the Police
headquarters in Abuja.
In its bid to ascertain the veracity of the allegation which the police
said was highly inimical to its public image, a panel comprising of a
Commissioner of Police, CP, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, an
Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, the Deputy Commissioner of Police
for INTERPOL and the Commissioner of Police responsible for Legal
Affairs (CP-Legal), queried Odinkalu at the Louis Edet House from
12:15pm till 5:30pm.
Though Dr Odinkalu who was appointed as chairman, governing council of
the NHRC by President Goodluck Jonathan early this year, was accompanied
to the police headquarters by two of his lawyers, Mrs. Maryam Uwais and
Mr. Bamidele Aturu, they were however barred from attending the
interrogation session despite their vehement protestations to the
decision.
According to a source who spoke to Vanguard on grounds of anonymity,
“the Police team requested that they would wish to meet with Dr.
Odinkalu alone, asking both counsel to excuse them from the meeting. An
argument as to the propriety and constitutionality of such request
ensued. The police claimed this to be their standard practice; counsel
argued that it was patently unconstitutional.
“The police explained the purpose of the encounter and said they desired
“an interaction” with the Chairman of the NCHR over remarks he made at
conference of the National Association of Judiciary Correspondents in
Abuja on 5 March 2012. They said it would be friendly and promised that
they had no intention of detaining him as was widely speculated in the
media.
“It was at that juncture that the lawyers stepped out about 13:15 hours
to the adjacent room while the encounter continued between Dr. Odinkalu
and the Police team.”
Meanwhile, the meeting was stalemated after the NHRC boss declined to
write a formal statement as he was directed to do by the police team.
Another source at the Right Commission told Vanguard that the two
lawyers were recalled into the meeting at 2: 40pm, with a plea that they
should convince their client to write a statement to back up his
allegations.
“Dr Odinkalu refused to comply with that directive because he had
already given them all the documents indicating that the contents of his
presentation (including the estimates) were derived from material
provided mostly from official government sources, including reports of
three successive Presidential Commissions and reports attributed to four
successive Inspectors-General of Police.
“Our Chairman had requested to know if he was being charged with an
offence in his personal capacity or if he was being asked to write the
statement in his capacity as Chair of the NHRC.
“He stated quite clearly that, as Chair of the NHRC, he would not write
any statement as that would amount to desecrating that exalted office.
But if they felt the need to charge him as an individual, they should
inform him of the charges against him, although he still retained the
right not to write a statement. He reminded them that the letter earlier
written by him to the IG, (copy of which had been submitted to the
Team, along with other documents) already provided the information they
required.
“Indeed, if they insisted that he write anything at all, he would write
them a letter, subsequent to the meeting to reiterate his stand on not
writing a statement on principle. Both Mrs. Uwais and Mr. Aturu
supported this position, demanding for respect for the NHRC as an
independent, statutory institution created by law.”
Sensing that the case was assuming a different dimension, the police
team asked both Odinkalu and his group to wait, just as they convened an
ad-hoc meeting in other to fully appraise the situation.
“Eventually, at 5.10pm, we were invited to the office of the DIG-FCID,
Peter Gana. He informed us that the concern of the NPF was that the
police image would be damaged both nationally and internationally, if
such ‘incredible’ estimates emanated from a high profile person such as
the Chair of the NHRC. This informed the basis for the formal invitation
to Chidi, if only to ascertain his sources and the veracity of the
information published in the newspapers. However, having been briefed by
the Police Team and shown all the documents submitted, he was satisfied
with the bases for the “estimates” credited to the Chairman of the
NHRC.
“The DIG said he hoped that the NPF and the NHRC would work together
towards improving efficient law enforcement and justice for Nigerian
citizens”, the source added.
Specifically, Odinkalu had in a speech he delivered at a two-day
capacity building workshop for judiciary correspondents with the theme,
“plea bargain and other emerging trends in criminal justice
administration in Nigeria,” maintained that, “by some estimates, the
police execute over 5,000 detainees summarily every year.”
He said: “We have a criminal justice system that is unable to catch
those who violate its rules; unable to ensure accountability even for
the most basic crimes; detains those whom it cannot convict often for
longer than it can hold them if it were to convict them; and, without
consequences, kills many on whom it can’t even pin any charges of
criminal conduct.
“In one sentence, our criminal justice system has normalized abnormality.
“Many detainees in police cells are held in prisons for over the
constitutionally permissible 48 hours and many police cells have
detainees who have been held without being arraigned for over six months
and, in some cases, over 12 months.”
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