Juliana Francis
The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre(RULAAC) has chastised the Delta Police Command for arresting suspected gay people in the state without following due process.
According to the Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, his organisation had noted with serious concern the arrest by the Delta State Police Command of over a hundred young people for allegedly carrying out a gay wedding ceremony in a hotel in Warri, Delta State and their parade before the media today, August 29, 2023.
Nwanguma said: “Whereas we acknowledge that Homosexual relationships are criminalised in Nigeria there are, nonetheless, established legal procedures for the treatment of persons accused of crime.
“Persons accused of committing any offence under the law are entitled to be presumed innocent until they are found guilty following a fair trial in a court of competent jurisdiction. They are also entitled to be treated with dignity.
“The point has been made repeatedly that parading suspects before the media is illegal, unconstitutional and prejudicial to fair hearing and fair trial. It is an illegal and unprofessional law enforcement method that violates human dignity and subverts the Constitutional right to presumption of innocence. It amounts to convicting the suspects without trial.”
Nwanguma said that he and other rights fighters were amazed that the Delta State Police Command could be this prompt and efficient in arresting and parading gay suspects. “Yet, more than three months after the Inspector-General of Police forwarded to the CP Delta a petition from a coalition of Civil Society organisations concerning allegations of ‘Obtaining by False Pretenses’ against a Delta State-based, self-acclaimed human rights activist, Harrison Gwamnishu, the Command has taken no action known to the petitioners. Harrison Gwamnishu was accused of defrauding several victims of millions of naira in his fake claim to activism.”
He recalled that the IGP’s directive to the CP Delta dated 15 May 2023, entitled ‘Alleged Fraud and Obtaining Money by False Pretenses against Harrison Gwamnishu by a Group of CSOs’ signed by CSP Idris Abdullahi Abubakar PSO to IGP directed the CP Delta to ‘handle’.
He added: “Three months after, the petitioners are yet to hear anything about the investigation. Recently, Harrison Gwamnishu posted a photograph of himself and CP Wale Abass on his Facebook page where he described the Delta CP as ‘a father to me’ and said he ‘appreciates his fatherly love to me’. We condemn the abuse of legally established procedures for handling crime suspects by parading the gay suspects before the media thereby flagrantly violating their due process rights.
“We call on the police to not further violate their rights. They should release them on bail or promptly charge them. We also condemn the double standards by the Delta Command in ignoring the directive of the IGP to investigate allegations of crime against Harrison Gwamnishu. We call on the CP Delta to comply with the directive of the IGP and ensure an unbiased and effective investigation of the allegations against Harrison Gwamnishu.”
