Many police officers operate in ignorance of Nigerian laws – NBA Chairperson

Charles Onuchukwu, the new chairperson of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Aba Branch, Abia State, has said many police operatives in the country were operating in ignorance of some provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, the Police Act and other laws.

He said that the ignorance of the law is causing many operatives to violate human rights across the country.

Mr Onuchukwu, who spoke during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Aba on Wednesday, said the situation calls for the re-training of police operatives in human rights and handling of investigations and that the NBA in Aba was willing to partner the police to achieve this.

He said that poor investigations by some police officers had ruined the chances of punishing criminals.

“We hope to have periodic seminars for policemen here to put them through some legal issues to assist their understanding of the position of the law on certain issues.

“I can tell you that, today, many criminal matters failed because of the nonchalant attitude of the police in doing thorough investigations or writing investigation reports.

“I have seen cases where an investigating police officer messed the entire thing up with haphazard investigation report,” he said.

Mr Onuchukwu said that the NBA branch would do its best to ensure that police operatives would know how to handle investigations better and respect human rights through partnership and re-training.

“We will ensure issues of criminal justice are done properly so that the police will not use their errors to continue to let suspected criminals off the hook.

“We all want a society guided by law where criminals are not let off the hook while the innocent should be free to move (about),” he said.

Insecurity in Aba

The NBA chairperson decried the state of insecurity in Aba.

He said, “The government is trying, but it needs to step up efforts. There is a need for the police to do proper intelligence gathering.”

Mr Onuchukwu said the NBA, Aba, was also worried about delays in prosecuting cases, which, he said, caused accused persons to languish in custody.

He said that the NBA intended to meet Governor Alex Otti of Abia State to discuss the need to increase the budget of the state judiciary to enable the construction of more courts.

Also, he called for the appointment of more judges in Abia.

“Since 2021, Abia State has not appointed any judge, so the few high court judges are handling many cases, and they can’t kill themselves.

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“At the magistrates’ courts, some of them sit in the morning while their colleagues take over in the afternoon because of lack of courtroom spaces,” he said.

He said that the branch was seeking ways to collaborate with other branches and the state government to tackle the challenges.