KEY POINTS
- Dr. Charles Mekwunye is urging President Tinubu to give freedom to people facing long-term detention without being formally tried.
- He is urging those in charge of law enforcement agencies to explain unlawful detentions.
- Mekwunye wants the ACJA 2015 reforms to be applied and for defendants to have skilled legal support.
Senior Advocate Dr. Charles Mekwunye has asked President Bola Tinubu to ensure that thousands of people unlawfully detained without charge or trial be brought before the court or released without further delay.
At the official launch of “Honourable Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, CJN, GCON Through the Cases,” a book he helped write to honor Nigeria’s 22nd Chief Justice, he made the appeal.
Ask to sign an executive order releasing the voiceless
Mekwunye urged Tinubu to sign an Executive Order requiring action on all inmates kept more than six months without being accused or facing trial. He advised that they receive fair compensation and the help of medical and psychological specialists.
“It is their helplessness and lack of a voice that puts these Nigerians behind bars, not their guilt,” said Mekwunye. The parents or kids of the President, Senate President, Governors or Justices aren’t included among their staff members.
Gaps in bureaucracies and responsibility of law-enforcement
Even though the crisis started before the current administration, Mekwunye stressed that the answer now falls to President Tinubu. He urged that if law enforcement agencies or their officials break the constitution, they should be held accountable.
You represent every Nigerian, even those who are without trial for months or years in prison, he said.
Problems in laws and forgotten rules, even with detainees
He also pointed out that the judiciary’s broader problems include the continued application of a full-blown trial to determine whether evidence from a suspect should be heard, even after the 2015 ACJA changes.
He brought up the Congressional and Supreme Court decisions in Charles v. People living in Lagos State (2023) must now have their confessions either recorded on the spot by law enforcement or in front of a lawyer.
It is unjust that trial courts keep ignoring this law, according to Mekwunye. “We are showing our judges that with the law change, they must also change.”
