Our advocacy at Gavel yielded positive fruition as the Lagos State House of Assembly passed an amended version of the Criminal Justice Law in the state barring the Police from parading suspects before the media.
An extract from the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Section 9{a} of the newly-passed bill states: “As from the commencement of this law, the Police shall refrain from parading suspects before the media.”
In collaboration with the Wole Soyinka Centre and Civic Hive, Gavel had written to the Director-General of the National Broadcasting Corporation as far back as the 10th day of January 2019; to protest the abhorrent practice of parading arrested suspects by the Nigeria Police.
It is a well-known modus operandi of the police to line up arrested suspects even in their underwear and parade them through the media e.g television and newspaper outlets.
This practice, no doubt goes against the constitution to wit; the fundamental rights of persons so arrested and thus; we advocate the quick assent to the bill by His Excellency, Jide Sanwo-Olu.
We equally encourage other State Assemblies and other Law-making bodies to follow suit.
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