Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, has signed into law a bill empowering him to detain anybody without questions or court/police warrant, even as citizens including members of the opposition in the State House of Assembly reacted angrily over what they described as “obnoxious law.”
The law otherwise known as ‘Imo State Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2020’ empowers the state governor to detain anyone at his pleasure without the need for a court warrant.
THISDAY observes that Sections 484 and 485 of the law provide that the governor may effect such detention notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, including that of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended).
The recently signed law, a copy of which was made public yesterday, does not recognise the need for an arrest warrant for any person who it deems to be “in legal custody”.
The offending Section 484 of the law reads: “Where any person is ordered to be detained during the Governor’s pleasure he shall notwithstanding anything in this law or in any other written law contained be liable to be detained in such place and under such conditions as the Governor may direct and whilst so detained shall be deemed to be in legal custody.”
