Lawyer Wants FG To Check Human Rights Violations

A Port Harcourt-based human rights lawyer, Mr Chijioke Agi has called on the Federal Government to check human rights violations by law enforcement agents.
Mr Agi, who spoke with The Tide in Port Harcourt at the weekend, expressed regrets at the upsurge of human rights violations among law enforcement agents in the country.
He said there were a plethora of fundamental rights cases in both federal and state high courts across the nation.
Mr Agi described as pathetic the unchecked abuses of citizens’ right and noted that if nothing was done to stem it, the situation would worsen.
The Port Harcourt lawyer remarked that policemen especially were turning civil matters to criminal in order to preside over them.
He said tenancy and commercial transactions has become matters for policemen to wade into.
He said most times, the policemen would introduce “threat” to it in order to give it a criminal colouration.
According to him, “policemen always flout the constitutional provision to charge accused persons to court within 24 hours of where there is a court of competent jurisdiction and 48 hours, where there is no court”.
He said it was unfortunate that the police could detain accused persons as much as it pleased them.