•By Douglas Ogbankwa, Esq. douglasogbankwa@gmail.com
In the course of my job as a lawyer, I have come across several cases where Law enforcement officers arrest people because they signed a purported commitment called “Surety Known To Me”, which is not a crime encapsulated in any written law, anywhere in Nigeria.
To situate the issues better, one of the components of the Rule of Law is legality: that is to say, enforcement of the law must be contingent on the existence of a crime in a codified (written ) law. It is a codification of a crime that establishes the same.
What does the word “know” mean?
*To have developed a relationship with (someone) through meeting and spending time with them; be familiar or friendly with. Example is “He knew and respected Laura*.”
How can it possibly be that “to have developed a relationship with (someone) through meeting and spending time with them; be familiar or friendly with” be a crime known to law in Nigeria?
To know a person is not a crime; it is a social skill. Let us not turn Law enforcement into a joke or something that occurs according to our whims and caprices. It will diminish the respect that individuals and institutions have for law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.
The leadership of law enforcement agencies in Nigeria should therefore give instructions to all their formations to stop this very embarrassing occurrence. The grant of bail is as provided for by law, and that law does not even give agencies the power to impose conditions. The Administration of Criminal Justice Law (2015 ) on the grant or refusal of Bail provides thus:
Section 158 Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 When a person who is suspected to have committed an offence or is accused of an offence is arrested or detained, or appears or is brought before a court, he shall, subject to the provisions of this Part, be entitled to bail.
The provision of the law, as indicated above, is the only thing that the law allows law enforcement agencies to do.
Bail is not a privilege; it is a constitutional right, it is provided for in Section 36, Chapter 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
As earlier indicated, for a person to be arrested, they must have committed a crime provided for by law. In a Particular case, Romanus Okafor Esq., of the NBA Benin Branch, got damages against some law enforcement agents for his being held for about 2 hours for the non-existent crime of “Surety Known to Me.”
The Court granted him 200,000 Naira in damages, 100,000 Naira per hour. While executing the garnishee order granted later in the case, the court granted him an additional one million Naira for the enforcement of the judgment, which was now to be borne by the Law Enforcement Agents.
This will now be the case in Nigeria if law enforcement agencies do not clean up their act. It is indeed now case law that there is no crime known as “Surety Known To Me”.To know a person is not a crime. Let us not trivialize Law Enforcement.
On the illegality of ‘Surety Known to me ‘, Section 36 (8) of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended ), provides thus: No person shall be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission that did not, at the time it took place, constitute such an offence, and no penalty shall be imposed for any criminal offence heavier than the penalty in force at the time the offence was committed.
From the analysis espoused above, it is obvious that there is no crime in the Nigerian jurisprudence with the appellation “Surety Known To Me.”A recognizance for Bail is a Bond, tied to the amount a person says he will forfeit, if the suspect absconds and the Law Enforcement Agency will sue for the amount in Court, if the suspect absconds, it is when the Surety does not pay the money stated in the bond, after Judgment, that you can hold him for contempt of court and he can go to jail.
For this, see the case of Dr Monday Onyekachi Ubani v. Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
This practice must stop forthwith, and this can only be done by way of a circular, memos or orders by the heads of agencies to their subordinates. The leadership of law enforcement agencies in Nigeria should therefore give instructions to all their formations to stop this very embarrassing occurrence.
The grant of bail is as provided for by law, and that law does not even give agencies the power to impose conditions.
This anomaly must be halted to stem the tide and stop the illegal harassment and intimidation of innocent citizens.
Nigeria is a Society guided by Laws and not the whims and caprices of people who are bestowed with powers by our Laws.
The Administration of Criminal Justice Act (Federal ) and Laws (State ) give citizens the right to sue an errant Investigating Police Officer and his bosses directly in their individual capacities, if they violated the law or cut corners.
The Courts should also strive to protect citizens’ rights, as that is the only safeguard against lawlessness and impunity. Citizens are vulnerable to the trappings of power of security agencies. Some of them are so weak that they lack the capacity to challenge the system. The State must step in by finding a way to interrogate the Policing Processes to give succour to the weak and tame the strong.
The Bar Association should, as of necessity, formulate policies and set up bodies to interface with the system to curb some of these excesses. This is in symmetry with the main objective of the Bar Association, which is *Protecting the Rule of Law*
As Chief Gani Fawehimwin SAN of Blessed Memory said : *The Legal Profession ought to be and must strive to remain the dependable bastion of hope, help and succour to the repressed, the oppressed and the suppressed in our Society*
About the Author: Douglas Ogbankwa, Esq. @douglasogbankwa@gmail.com, is the Convener of the Intellectual Hub, Security Situation Room and Vanguard for the Independence of the Judiciary.
