PH Lawyer Condemns Human Rights Abuses In Nigeria

L-R: Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Finance and Administration, Mr Dan’Azumi Doma, Inspector General, Mr. Solomon Arase, and Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Logistics and Supply, Mr Mamman Tsafe, at the Commissioners of Police’s end of the Year Conference in Abuja, recently.

A Port Harcourt-based
lawyer and human rights crusader, Barr. Jackson Assor, has criticised the spate of human rights abuses in the Nigerian nation-state.
Barr. Assor, who made the condemnation while chatting with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday expressed fears that the nation might relapse to dictatorship.
He described the re-arrest of accused persons standing trial, who had been granted bail by courts of competent jurisdiction as pathetic and noted that it was a slur on our democracy.
The Port Harcourt lawyer explained that the Directorate of State Security (DSS) had been in the habit of re-arresting accused persons standing trial in courts when they were granted bail.
He said that the place of prosecution in the Nigerian criminal justice administration was not to secure conviction of the accused persons but to ensure that justice prevailed at the end.
Barr. Assor said that government had three arms which were not fused but separated and pointed out that the spate of executive lawlessness ridiculed criminal justice administration in the country.
According to him, “an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. Therefore we cannot begin to treat an accused as if he had committed the crime for which he is standing trial”.
“The system for which an accused is presumed guilty until proven innocent is not practiced in Nigeria. So we cannot but treat the accused person with respect”, the lawyer stated.
He said executive recklessness was expressed in the trial of the former National Security Adviser, Dasuki among others.
Barr. Assor noted that prevalence of executive lawlessness would do collateral damage to our developing democracy and warned the various tiers of government to desist from unwholesome acts of impunity.
“Nobody wants to relive the horrible era of the military”, the lawyer stated.

Chidi Enyie