Keywords: Crime, Law Enforcement, Law Enforcement agencies, Judiciary, Judicial System, Decadence, Law.
Written By Sampson I. Ekigbo, Esq
.INTRODUCTION
It seems that the concept of crime is now inextricably linked to the existence of any society. A crime is simply illegal conduct that is sanctioned by the state or another legal entity. Although statutory definitions have been supplied for specific purposes, the term “crime” in modern criminal law lacks a recognized definition. One such definition states that a crime, offense, or criminal offense is a conduct that harms a community, society, or state in addition to some specific individuals. Such actions are illegal and subject to legal punishment.
The threat of crime has engulfed society. No nation on earth is completely free of crime. The word “crime” comes from the old French word “crinme,” which itself came from the Latin words “Crimen,” which means accusation, and “Cerno,” which means I judge, I pass judgment. But, it wasn’t until the High Middle Ages, approximately 1250, that the word “crime” was first recorded being used.
As was previously mentioned, no nation in the world can be said to be free from crime. This merely indicates that crime exists in every country in the world. However, while some nations can boast of having low crime rates, the opposite is true in the majority of them, including Nigeria, the case study for this work. In this article, we will examine how law enforcement agencies and the judicial system have fallen short of their obligations when it comes to the problem of crime in Nigeria, as we take a deep look at crime in Nigeria, Law Enforcement Agencies in Nigeria, and the decay in the Nigerian Judicial System.
CRIME IN NIGERIA
The West African nation of Nigeria is endowed with a wealth of natural attractions and wildlife preserves. Without a doubt, it is the most populated nation in Africa, with a population of over 200 million. Nonetheless, despite the country’s rich natural beauty and population, crime and corruption have persisted in infiltrating every area of it.
The Nigerian criminal scene is characterized by violence, terrorism, political instability, and the alienation of the populace. Nigeria is seen as a nation that has a high rate of crime. The 2022 World Peace Index placed it as the 18th least peaceful nation and the 6th most terrorist-friendly nation. Over 6,000 individuals were killed in the first half of 2022 by kidnappers, bandits, or should we say “Unknown gunmen,” as well as some personnel of the so-called law enforcement agencies, providing conclusive evidence of this rise in crime.
In Nigeria, crimes are divided into felonies (very serious offenses), such as armed robbery, arson, kidnapping, child stealing, auto theft, burglary, counterfeiting, conspiracy, drug offenses, forgery, fraud, murder, rape, smuggling contraband, theft of an object of high value, treason, and misdemeanors (less serious offenses), which include other offenses not mentioned above. The primary codified law in Nigeria for criminal investigation, prosecution, and punishment of offenders is the Nigeria Criminal Code. It is based on the Nigeria Criminal Code Act of 1916, the Nigeria Penal Code Act of 1960, and much additional criminal legislation that the Nigerian Parliament has occasionally passed. The Nigerian Criminal Code 1990 contains the most recent consolidated version of the law.
Sadly, the crime rate in Nigeria is rising despite these established regulations. Nigeria was rated 16th country overall in the World Population Review’s Crime Index with the highest crime rate globally and had the greatest crime rate and the lowest crime index, 64.06, behind Namibia and ahead of Bangladesh, which had crime index ratings of 65.21 and 63.9, respectively, according to the World Population Review’s Crime Index rating.
LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES IN NIGERIA
Let’s quickly define what law enforcement means before we thoroughly explore the idea of law enforcement agencies in Nigeria. Law enforcement, as defined by the New Law Journal, Vol. 123(1), pg. 358 (1974), is the activity of some members of the government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The law is enforced when there is a breakdown of the law. Any government organization tasked with upholding the law is a law enforcement agency.
The Economic, and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), National Agency For Food & Drug Administration& Control (NAFDAC), National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigerian Prison Service, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), are some of the federal law enforcement agencies in Nigeria charged, with upholding the country’s laws.
Let’s take a quick, look at the aforementioned law enforcement organizations, their roles, and the laws that support them.
Nigeria Police Force
This is one of the main law enforcement agencies in Nigeria. The Nigerian National Police, which was founded in 1930, was given exclusive national jurisdiction under the 1999 constitution. The Nigerian Police Force is established by Section 214(1) of the Constitution, and the 1943 Police Act outlines its organizational structure, responsibilities, and legal authority. The new, unified Nigerian Police Establishment Act 2020, which replaced the 1943 Police Act, was, however, assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari on September 17, 2020.
The vast duties of the force are detailed in Section 4 of the Act, which says, The police shall be employed for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the protection of life and property, and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged, and shall perform such military duties within or without Nigeria as may be required by them by, or under the authority of, this or any other Act.
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
To successfully coordinate the domestic effort of the worldwide battle against money laundering, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) functions according to international standards and works to eradicate economic and financial crimes in Nigeria. First passed in 2002, the EFCC Establishment Act was revised in 2004.
The Act mandates the EFCC to combat economic and financial crimes, empowering the Commission to prevent, investigate, prosecute, and punish such offenses. The agency is also tasked with carrying out other laws’ and regulations’ requirements that pertain to economic and financial crimes to purge the system.
The following laws are referenced in Section 7(2) of the Establishment Act of 2004:
The Money Laundering Act of 1995.
The Money Laundering (Prohibition) act 2004.
The Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act 1995.
The Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act 1994.
The Banks and other Financial Institutions Act 1991.
Miscellaneous Offences Act, 1985.
The Criminal Code and the Penal Code.
Terrorism Act, 2011.
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency
In Nigeria, the NDLEA is in charge of drug policy and management. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act, CAP N30 Law of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, amended Decree No. 48 of December 29, 1989, which established the agency as a federal law enforcement agency. The decree was enacted mostly in response to the growing narcotic drug and psychotropic substance demand and trafficking trend, which in the 1980s harmed Nigerians’ and Nigeria’s reputation abroad. The Agency has the responsibility to stop the illegitimate production, importation, exportation, sale, and trafficking of psychoactive drugs within this purview.
Federal Road Safety Commission
With Decree No. 45 of 1988, as amended by Decree 35 of 1992, known in the statutory books as the FRSC Act CAP 141 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), the Federal Government established the Federal Road Safety Commission in February 1988. It was passed as Federal Road Safety Commission (Establishment) Act 2007 by the National Assembly. It is the major organization in Nigeria for managing and administering road safety, and it works in every state, including the Federal Capital Territory. Some of their statutory duties include making highways safe for drivers and other road users, evaluating the roadworthiness of vehicles, recommending projects and infrastructures to prevent or reduce accidents on the highways, and informing drivers and the general public about the value of maintaining road discipline on highways, to mention but a few.
Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps
The Lagos Civil Defence was the name given to the paramilitary Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) by the Nigerian government in May 2003. The statute was amended in 2007 to increase the corp’s statutory obligations. It was given the task of recommending defenses against potential threats, attacks, and natural disasters that could harm the country and its people. The lay Act No. 2 of 2003, as revised by Act 6 of 4 June 2007, grants the corps legal authority. Along with the Nigerian police, the NSCDC’s main duty is to protect people and property. The protection of pipelines from vandalism is one of the corp’s most important duties. The organization is also involved in handling crises.
Although these law enforcement agencies were created to uphold the rule of law and maintain order in society, the key question is whether or not they have carried out the roles, responsibilities, and obligations established by the constitution and the laws that created them and made it possible for them to operate.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN NIGERIA
Just like older legal practitioners are progressing, so are new practitioners graduated from the Nigerian Law School every year. But, with the current situation in the Nigerian Labour Market where money or the “top personality” you know guarantees your spot for a job, where will these thousands of new graduates work? Anyways, this is the topic of discussion for next time.
In Nigeria, there are three(3) arms of government, the Legislative arm is responsible for making laws and consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Executive branch is responsible for executing the laws and is led by the president and other members of the executive, and the Judiciary is responsible for interpreting the laws. For this article, we will concentrate only on the judiciary.
The judicial system has to do with the system of law courts and the administration of justice. It is made up of the Federal Courts which consists of the Supreme Court (Apex Court in Nigeria), the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court, and the State Courts which includes the High Court of a State, the Customary Court of Appeal of a State and the Sharia Court of Appeal of a State.
The Court is generally regarded as the last hope of the common man. Although it is not common knowledge to every person, Lady Justicia, the justice statue represents the power of the law. She is seen holding a sword, a scale, and a blindfold over her eyes. The sword represents authority, her capability to disperse justice on all sides, the scale represents a balance upon which she weighs acts, and the blindfold represents equality or impartiality. This denotes the gravity of the law whose agent is the court.
There is a generally accepted notion that when parties are aggrieved and cannot settle themselves, by the way of negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, they can resort to the court system where their grievances will be determined one way or another.
The principle of natural justice is to the effect that a party is to be heard before the case against him is determined; a trial is only considered fair when there is no infringement on the principle of natural justice. This is as held PER OLABODE RHODES-VIVOUR, JSC IN CHUKWUMA V. FRN (2011) LPELR 863 (SC). Therefore, the common man resorts to court with the notion that there would be a fair trial and he too will be allowed to tell his side of the story also in line with the principle of audi alteram partem (Hear the other side).
The court system therefore centrally exists to maintain law and order. To effectively deliver on this role, there is generally supposed to be a synergy between the court system and law enforcement agencies.
The hierarchy that exists in the court system makes it easy for ease in the dispensation of justice even though the length in litigation belittles this. A court of first instance being the first point of call for an aggrieved person is charged with the primary duty in the face of justice to assuage one party but judiciously. If the other party refuses to accept the decision of the court, he proceeds to an appellate court. In one way or another, there should be an end to litigation and the supreme court ties the knot finally and any party still aggrieved has no other choice except to petition to his maker.
However, the big question becomes, What is the synergy like between law enforcement agencies and the judicial system? Can an appraisal of the judicial system currently reveal solid progress or decadence?
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES AND THE
JUDICIARY
There is no doubt that some aggrieved individuals have approached the court system and they received their justice, that is, justice not only perceived as what was due to them but was such that every reasonable man could perceive as justice. It is a principle in law that the test of justice is that justice must be seen to be done based on the view of an independent and impartial observer sitting in court and listening dispassionately to the entire proceedings. This is as held by the court PER GEORGE BAPTIST AYODOLA COKER, JSC IN GAJI V. STATE (1975) LPELR-1301 (SC).
Land tussles, personal injuries, and insurance matters, to mention but a few are instances of subject matters under which individuals, communities, corporate bodies, etc., have received legal remedies.
However, the current condition of the Nigerian state begs the question as listed above. A quick reference point as to doubts raised on the direction the judicial system is headed is the recent Order made by the Supreme Court on the Naira redesign policy, an order which conflicts with the directive from the President of the country, making one wonder exactly what is the current relationship between the executive and the judiciary as regards this matter.
However, the focus of this article is on the relationship that has existed between law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.
We will recall that in 2020, the whole world was rocked by the Coronavirus pandemic, but added to the gravity of what Nigeria, as a country had to deal with was the EndSARS movement.
The EndSARS protest which started like child’s play but soon degenerated into one of the biggest protests to be forever remembered in the history of Nigeria was a decentralized social movement and mass protest against police brutality. The slogan EndSARS called for the disbandment of a notorious unit of the Nigerian police with a long record of abuse on Nigerian Citizens, known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The protest first laid its foundation in 2017 as a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #EndSARS. During the campaign, citizens began tweeting a series of allegations of the extra-judicial killings, wanton arrests, and dispossession of properties through physical assault and other intimidation tactics by this notorious police unit. The social media campaign comes after years of appeals to police authorities to address the alleged gross rights abuses by SARS fell through.
However, in October 2020, after experiencing a revitalization of these heinous crimes by SARS following more revelations, a mass demonstration began. The demonstration which rocked the country for two weeks started when a video went viral of a man allegedly being killed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. The protest saw tens of thousands of young Nigerians including well-known celebrities with bitter experiences on the streets and several others on social media supporting the movement to end police brutality with many hashtags including #Endpolicebrutality.
But, it was not until scores of young and unarmed Nigerian youths who were only protesting for their rights were massacred on 20/10/2020 with so many reports coming from social media, news media including international media, did the government begin acting concerned and finally agreed to disband SARS. The irony of the whole thing was that families who had evidence of their loved ones being killed and their corpses taken away forcefully from them by the perpetrators of the grave crime were left with no other option but to run back to this same police to lay their complaints which was rather unfortunate because this was like pouring water into a basket.
Now the questions are what was done about the families of the victims after they cried out? Did the police even investigate these complaints? What was done to the suspects? Were they arrested? If they were arrested, were they charged to court? And finally, if they were charged in court, what did the court do?
It is worth noting that judicial panels were set by different state governors to look into the cases, with states publishing the reports and recommendations made by the panel. However, reports from some news channels have it that two years later, most of these states have shown no desire to implement the recommendations of the panel to compensate victims’ families and prosecute the indicted policemen. This has left people to wonder, are there high profiled individuals behind these acts and who was backing these police operatives, who seem rather untouchable? As injustice was openly done, why would the strongest agent of the law, the judicial system act taciturn?
Of course, the discussion on the decadence of law enforcement agencies cannot be complete without mentioning the case of the former acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu who was alleged to have concealed N118bn & $309M fraud cases.
According to a report by Punch newspaper, the presidential panel that probed the former acting chairman revealed that 14 fraud cases involving N118 billion and $309 million were abandoned by the anti-graft commission under his watch. Magu, the acting chairman of EFCC was in July 2020 arrested, detained and suspended. He was brought before the panel headed by Justice Ayo Salami, former president of the Court of Appeal on allegations of gross misconduct. He was further accused of suppressing high-profile cases involving four ex governors as well as other allegations which included not remitting N48billion loot recovered in foreign and local currencies and the anti-graft commission giving contradictory figures on the total number of recovered real estate under his watch.
One funny thing about this case is the fact that the acting chairman who is supposed to be the one spearheading the movement to uncover fraud cases and other financial crime-related cases was caught in the web of crime. Ironic right? Well, welcome to Nigeria where nothing comes as a surprise anymore.
In as much as we praise some of the wonderful works of the judiciary in serving hot justice, we however, cannot overlook how the system has fallen short of its obligations when it comes to the problem of crime in Nigeria. Below is a little mental picture of the new judicial system in Nigeria where anything goes.
At one point or another, the majority of us have heard or even experienced some of the instances we are about to give on decadence on the part of the judiciary. Good examples are cases where a person is unlawfully accused and arrested because of a little conflict or fall out with a top government official, such a person even with being unlawfully accused and arrested, is denied the right to bail and without proper investigation, the person is charged to court and judgment delivered without observing due process, all because of the involvement of the government in the case.
Another instance, is when a person commits a crime and is arrested, the person is granted bail as a result of the person’s relationship to a high-profiled individual or government official or the person directly or indirectly has the backing of the government or that the government is interested in the matter. At this point, is the court dispensing justice or doing the will of the government.
Also, corruption among judicial officers is no longer a new thing and has become an order of the day. It is rather unfortunate that a judicial officer who has sworn an oath to remain impartial and treat everyone equal before the law, would go against this same oath to collect bribe from a defendant’s family, goes ahead to overlook an overwhelming evidence against the defendant and enters judgment in favour of the defendant, thereby wrongly applying the principle that where any doubt is raised in the case of the prosecution, it is resolved in favor of the defendant.
There are also situations where the court turned into a political arena, where judgments are entered in favor of a prominent figure just because such a person may be the one that facilitated the appointment of such judicial officer or where it becomes obvious that a particular court is a room where political games can be played, and it is only one who is the highest bidder or offeror of cash or kind that would be entitled to the judgment of the court in his favor.
How about where a highly placed law enforcement agent or judicial officer involved in a case works to cover up the case while it is still in their power or they may work to assign it to a court they know will do the bidding in favor of the high-profile figure.
These and more are some of the cases and instances where both the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, who are supposed to be the custodians and upholders of the rule of law, have gone contrary to their oath of duty and have fallen short of their obligations to get rid of crime in Nigeria, thereby, demonstrating the decadence in the judicial system and law enforcement agencies as regards the problem of crime in Nigeria.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the judiciary and law enforcement agencies are not just the custodians of law but also interpreters and enforcers of law in the country. They are like watchdogs in society who keep the people in check and should therefore never be found wanting. We have analysed how the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary have fallen short of their obligations to society as regards the problem of crime in Nigeria by carefully looking at the topic of crime, law enforcement agencies, and the decay in the Judicial system in Nigeria. If Nigeria will remain peaceful, orderly and maintain its beauty, one factor that would facilitate this is when we all as citizens no matter our social strata should work together to steer the wheel of the nation in the right direction.
Sampson Ekigbo, Esq
Legal practitioner, Human Rights Activist, Public Affairs Analyst, Social Commentator and a Teacher. Contact (+234(0)27263296)
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