Different ways different governments worry about facebook, etc
One wonders if you had noticed so much discussion going on in America and Europe over the impact of the tech giants like Google, Facebook, etc. These are impacts on privacy, liberty, free speech, control on personal choices, crime, etc. In fact, the countries where these tech giants originated are very concerned and they feel a need to control the tech giants through regulation.
Equally, the governments of Africa, like Nigeria's, are concerned about the effect of the technological resources controlled by the tech giants. But Nigeria is not seeking to control the tech giants, which they cannot do. Instead, Nigerian government is seeking to control its citizen's use of the technology. Hence, Nigeria is experimenting with a new law that will make hate speech a capital offense, a wholly terrible idea.
Regarding the approaches adopted by various governments, there is the question of the user or consumer attitude and dependency. Do the consumers understand the actual and potential dangers of the use of these tech services? Apparently not, especially in developing countries such as Nigeria.
The worst harm coming from the services of the tech giants is the effect of fake news. A wholly false story could be peddled against a person or group or about a situation . Such manipulative and malicious contents influence people's real judgment and decisions about a person or group. The consequence could be devastating both to the target and the society.
As is now apparent, state actors and powerful companies have used manipulative contents and fake accounts to generate fake news that have toppled governments and changed the outcome of elections. Also, on smaller scales, fake news and manipulative contents have been used to attack individuals.
One interesting example of this was Sahara Reporter's false stories about Attorney Emeka Ugwuonye, a Nigerian-American lawyer, and Founder of DPA. Sahara Reporters falsely published that Ugwuonye was disbarred in the United States (No judgment of disbarment was ever tendered, and most people did not understand that a person cannot be disbarred without a final judgment by the highest court in the jurisdiction, which is the court that grants the license to practice as a lawyer). Also, after a while, Sahara Reporters began to report that Ugwuonye was disbarred in Nigeria. All these were false but with devastating consequences.
Who needs protection from the manipulative contents spread through Facebook and co? Different governments adopt different approaches. America and Europe want to protect consumers. But third world governments such as Nigeria, Iran, etc want to protect government and government officials. In Emeka Ugwuonye's case, the Nigerian government used fake news against Ugwuonye to deflect Ugwuonye's legitimate criticism of government. Nigerian Government officials are not interested in protecting the user/consumer, but rather in protecting themselves. Hence Nigeria's hate speech law. It will be an extraordinary complexity for a country like Nigeria to effectively regulate hate speech. Every criticism of government will arm the police with another opportunity to extort money from citizens.
A probably better approach is to educate the users and consumers on the dangers of abuses in the system. Also, the tech giants should do a lot more of self-policing. Facebook closed five billion fake accounts in 2019 alone. These were accounts created with fake or false identities. They should also respond better to fake contents, aside from fake accounts.
All in all, the dangers of fake accounts and malicious and manipulative contents otherwise known as fake news cannot be over-emphasized.
This Is What Emeka Ugwuonye Wants
This question was explained to me by one of Emeka's lawyers.
Emeka wants what most normal people want in life - to be a good father to his children, a good son to his mother, a good family man, a good professional who will contribute positively to his society and humanity at large. He has great taste in everything, be it wines, music, cars, friends, etc.
But the question is asked in respect of his current fight against the Nigerian police that landed him in prison without trial.
Why didn't Emeka just walk away and avoid their trouble? Why didn't he return to America? Or why didn't he just mind his business?. He had the knowledge and skill to milk the country like many others and make millions and enjoy his life? Why didn't he do that? So, what does the man want?
I found an answer to these questions in a post Emeka Ugwuonye made few days before his arrest. He wrote, as if he knew that we would ask this question after his arrest:
"I cannot accept to be quiet in a country where there is so much injustice, where the police abuse the rights of citizens as if they are animals or slaves. I have to try to stop that by at least criticizing them. I don't want to succumb to fear. I want to enjoy in Nigeria the rights I enjoyed in the US - the right to say my mind, the right to criticize even the president, the right to go anywhere I want. The right to be free of fear. And I want my people to have these rights too. For that reason, I will not leave Nigeria and I will speak against injustices by the police. I want to be an advocate of due process".
Emeka understood that for him to try to change the society, he has to make some sacrifices. He sees his current challenges as the sacrifice he has to make. He accepted it in good fate and he is as resolute as ever. He will triumph in the end. According to him, if I succeed in setting people free, I shall go to my grave a happy man".
I think that's what Emeka Ugwuonye wants.
Why is it that the Abuja judiciary will not do anything about police atrocities?
The answer to the captioned question is very simple. It is because the Chief Judge and the Chief Magistrate are indirectly responsible for those atrocities. Ask me how.
If the Chief Judge and the Chief Magistrate had performed their statutory functions as provided in Section 34 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, (ACJA) there would be virtually no atrocities in Abattoir or other police detention centers in Abuja. I have attached a screenshot of Section 34 of ACJA for you to read through.
Section 34 provides that the Chief Magistrate is to visit the police stations every month. It further provides that during such visit, the Chief Magistrate may call for and inspect the record of arrests; direct the arraignment of the suspect, grant bail to suspects. That section also provides that the officers in charge of a police station shall make available to the visiting Chief Magistrate the full record of arrest and record of bail, etc. And any officer who fails to do so will be punished.
This is the function the Chief Judge and the Chief Magistrate, particularly the Chief Magistrate, failed to perform all these years. They waited until DPA wrote petitions before they started performing their duties. By then, thousands of Nigerians have died in police custody.
DPA is considering suing the Chief Judge and Chief Magistrate and the police for this. We just can't take it quietly.
Updates On Emeka Ugwuonye Court Appearance Today
The court did not seat. The reason given was that the judge was indisposed. The only further detail provided was that the she had some speech and voice problem that prevented her from seating.
This was the 3rd consecutive time in three consecutive months that the court could not seat.
This must have come to you as a surprise and may have left some of you angry and disappointed. But we, in the DPA administration, do not feel disappointed as such. We had previously assessed the situation, generally and specifically, and we did not have high expectations of the Nigerian justice system. Otherwise, what did you think that DPA had been lamenting all this while? We saw this happening to ordinary people in Nigeria. We saw justice failing the people so badly. In fact, we created DPA because we knew that this sort of thing has been happening, and we wanted to stop it.
The impeachment hearing in the US, which involved an entire congressional committee acting as judges, many witnesses located in different parts of the world, complex facts involving many privileged communications, many subpoenas, thousands of depositions, etc, will be completed before a Nigerian court presided over by one judge can seat for four hours on a simple case. So, there is something deeply wrong with the Nigerian courts.
The case of Emeka Ugwuonye is therefore a laboratory experimentation with the problems that gave rise to DPA. So if this could happen to Emeka Ugwuonye, a Harvard trained Nigerian-American lawyer, the leader of a Human Right organization, what will they do to you, if you were in disagreement with them? They may probably have killed you and your family by now. So, the only thing you should draw out of this is that you need to take DPA seriously. You need to understand that you are not safe in this country. You need to register with DPA. You need to take human rights seriously. You need to support DPA, because supporting DPA means supporting yourself.
We were not surprised by the fact that the court did not seat today. We suspected that it would happen. That was why we never bothered to mobilize our members to attend the trial because we did not want them to leave their work and come for a trial that would not hold. In fact, if you noticed, we did not announce today's trial until few hours before the trial. The reason was because we did not want to bring out our members.
Despite our misgivings we are prepared to face the Mr. Bala Ciroma's men in court, The Founder arrived court by 9:45am, escorted by by over ten warders and prison security officials. He was dressed in white brocade with President Buhari-style cap. He was in great spirit, looking gallant, and beaming with smiles as he alighted from the prison vehicle and sighted some of our members he recognized. Yes, despite the no-notice, some of our members still managed to come. Our leader was happy to meet them.
Communicating through his lawyers, the Founder of DPA urged our members to remain strong and focused. Rather than cry or despair, they should see all that happened as vindication of DPA. It all proved us right. We were right to have said that there is intolerable level of injustice in Nigeria and that the people of this country needed to come together to tackle it. This is yet another vindication. We just witnessed the revelation about Abattoir. We have witnessed the continued police atrocities in Nigeria. We are seeing the positive effects of our advocacy in the recent evacuation of Abattoir detainees, which saved the lives of many detainees. We are proud of various DPA interventions and advocacies which have saved lives in Nigeria.
The Founder also thanked the DPA Admin crew, particularly the Rambo team, for the great work they have done in his absence. He sent his love to all his daughters in DPA and all the members.
Thank you.
The cost of correcting the blunders created by the police in Abuja
The police arrested and detained thousands of people without charging them to court as the constitution demanded. People were detained for over 24 months instead of the 24 hours the constitution demanded. People were extorted and even killed or dumped to starve to death in Abattoir and other police detention centers.
After DPA began to draw the attention of the world to the problem, the courts of Abuja jumped into action, but the situation was already too bad.
On 4th and 5th November the court evacuated hundreds of detainees and remanded them in prison and set Monday and Tuesday (18th and 19th November) for their appearance in court.
But how can any court try 400 people at once? That was the problem the Chief Judge realized today. 160 of these wretched victims were to appear in court today. But that was canceled. First, there were not enough police personnel in Abuja because they had gone for their best assignments - elections in Bayelsa and Kogi. And police are needed to help control 160 criminal defendants in court. What if they decide to run away, they must have wondered. The prisons don't have enough handcuffs for all of them at once. For these reasons today's court was canceled. That was unfortunate because effort had been made to send lawyers to the intended court.
The solution now is to move the court again back to Abattoir. It will be a court in the open. The detainees will be bused back to Abattoir. Trial will be held there. Those that can be set free will be set free and those that may need to be remanded will return to the prison. (None will be held in Abattoir again. We believe that they now know that human beings cannot be detained in Abattoir).
So, tomorrow, there will be a new chapter in Nigerian justice. 160 people will stand trial in one location at once. About 25 judges will participate in this trial bonanza. This is the problem created by the police.
DPA is monitoring the situation closely.
No going back in our determination to expose atrocities by Nigerian police
Fear is a weapon the bad guys use to put everybody to silence. Most Nigerians understand that many police officers in the Nigerian police force have gone rogue. But the situation is actually worse. There are many deadly criminals in the police force. They are the kidnappers. They are the armed robbers. They are the assassins. They put fear in you and control you by that.
Abattoir secret prison in Abuja is just one of the evil machinations of the police. Even the IG may not understand all that is going on in Abattoir. We have heard of cases where the policemen would hide some Abattoir inmates when they knew the IGP was visiting. In other words, it is not only the judges they hide inmates from. They have done it to an IGP and many external visitors like human rights groups and Red Cross. How do they hide hundreds of people?
We know that many people would wonder: How can they hide so many people? This is how they do it: The area known as Abattoir is a large area located on a rocky landspace. There is no drive-through or access. It is like going into a hill that you cannot drive through and you have to exit through the same gate you came in through. When you enter the area called abattoir, you will see only the offices toward the front left. Deep in the hill behind the offices, toward the right, is a monstrous building. You can't see anything from outside looking in. That is the main Abattoir detention cell. That cell contains about 1000 detainees at any given time. Nobody sees those detainees, except the police and few privileged people. It is a highly secure and highly controlled facility. Nobody goes to that building unless you are a detainee being led to the cell or you are one of the officers that work there.
There are many other buildings and spaces hidden behind the offices. Those are not accessible to visitors either. Whenever a human right group comes to see things in Abattoir, normally they would come on a schedule. They normally would arrive by 10am to 12noon. Early that morning, the police would come to Abattoir cell and march all physically able detainees to the buildings behind the offices to the left. Those who are too weak to walk would be carried by other inmates. These would be kept in that place until the visitors had left.
Of course, they would not take every detainee out of the cell. Otherwise, that would look suspicious. They will leave some inmates, about 50, usually those that are physically able and not showing any visible torture injuries and those who have been in detention for only a few weeks. Those are the ones the visitors will meet. Even at that, the police will warn those detainees not to say anything outside what they are told to say. The police will be with the visitors each time they are talking to a detainee. If an inmate would try to tip the visitors off, that will be the end of his life. We heard of a detainee who dared to reveal the truth about his case. The detainee had been in detention for more than one year. The officer handling his case told him to say he had been in detention for only two weeks. But when the visitors asked him, he told them he had been in detention for 14 months. The visitors screamed and requested that the man be freed or charged to court. Because of his case, the visitors scheduled to come back after one month. When they came back and asked, they were told that the man had been released as they requested. They left satisfied. Meanwhile, the man was killed for not doing as he was told.
Abattoir is certainly not the only such secret prison or killing ground used by the Nigerian police. DPA knows there are more. But Nigerians must be aware of the existence of such places. Human civilization has gone beyond the point where we would keep quiet out of fear. DPA will do whatever is possible to expose Abattoir and other secret prisons. We have videos and pictures of Abattoir. We have made these pictures available to critical individuals within and outside Nigeria. We made them part of our petitions to international agencies and the diplomatic community and foreign news agencies.
DPA just has to expose Abattoir in order to stop the atrocities. You will recall that in October of 2018, when we first tried to expose Abattoir, Mr. Bala Ciroma, (Commissioner of Police for Abuja) and Mr. Jimoh Moshood (then the Police PRO) looked the world in the yes and denied the existence of Abattoir, and they falsely accused DPA Founder of being a criminal. Now, let the world know the role of these police officers in the human slaughter that has occurred in Abattoir.
Having our Founder in detention is not enough to stop DPA. Indeed, DPA operations do not depend on the Founder. We can operate from our overseas locations once we have gathered the evidence in Nigeria.
Can you believe that some of the judges could not control their tears when they got to abattoir?
When DPA started sending out petitions against police atrocities in Abattoir on 7th October, 2019, we did not initially send any to the Chief Judge of FCT Abuja. Rather, we sent to the National Assembly (the House of Rep and the Senate). We sent to the Presidency (President and Vice President). We sent to the Attorney General and the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the IG of police, but of course we sent to major international agencies and foreign governments..
We are not exactly sure how our petition made it to the Chief Judge of Abuja. But because our petition hammered on Abattoir atrocities either the Attorney General or the Chief Justice or someone in the presidency forwarded it to the attention of the Chief Judge, who liaised with the chief Magistrate. We suspect that the Attorney General might be at least one of those who contacted the Chief Judge.
The reason we suspect the Attorney General is that the same week the Chief Judge first tried to visit Abattoir, Justice Kekemeke of the High Court of the FCT had an occasion to be angry with the police in his court. The Judge tried to adjourn a trial for 2 days. The police prosecutor asked for one month. The judge got very angry and said to the police: "You people don't know what is happening. Everything has changed. The Chief Judge is breathing down our throats for us to expedite all these cases". He went on to say that pressure was also coming from the Attorney General's office. He further told the police that the accused people had been in prison and that he would not allow him an adjournment of longer than one week.
The incident in Justice Kekemeke court occurred the 3rd week of October. That was the week the Chief Judge initially visited Abattoir. He announced he was coming and the police knew exactly when he was coming. So, the police managed to move the inmates out of the cells. As early as 5am, the police moved the inmates out of the cell. When the Chief Judge entered Abattoir, he could not see the inmates that were shown in the Abattoir pictures DPA attached to its petitions. That caused the Chief Judge to ask repeatedly if there were not other inmates. One of the few inmates, the police purposefully left behind told the Chief judge that the inmates were taken away and hidden that morning. The Chief Judge understood. He told them not to worry that he knew what to do.
The Chief Judge left with his team. On Monday, 4th November, 2019, the chief Judge came back unannounced with a team of judges and magistrates - more than 10 of them. They arrived around 8:30am and they went straight to the Abattoir cells. They took the police by surprise. This time they saw worse than was shown on the pictures submitted by DPA. They saw hundreds of men emaciated to skeleton out of hunger. They saw people with torture injuries. The stench, the suffering was unbearable. Some of the detainees were too weak to stand on their feet.
The judges could not believe what they saw. Tears were seen trickling down the faces of some of the judges. The Chief Judge and his team immediately declared the place a mobile court and started issuing warrants for the detainees to be taken to the prisons where they could at least have food to eat and live. Some who were strong enough to go home were set free, depending on their stories.
This is a landmark victory for us, DPA members. But we must not relax yet. We still have a long way to go. When the police made the mistake of detaining Emeka Ugwuonye in Abattoir in July of 2018 for just a weekend, Emeka saw Abattoir and he swore to tell the world about Abattoir. He tried by making a documentary on Abattoir. The police decided to silence him the way they know best. So, they charged him with murder of someone he didn't even know was in existence.
Today, we know that the corrupt police behind Abattoir were not able to cover up Abattoir. We demand for justice. We demand for a public hearing. Let the families of those killed in Abattoir come forward and talk about their pains. The victims deserve justice and healing.
Addendum toDPA recommendations to National Assembly on justice reform: The courts should bear the cost of transporting prison inmates from correctional facilities to the courts for trial
Currently, the cost of transporting prison inmates from various correctional facilities to the various courts for trials is borne by the Prison Service (Correctional Service).
Who are the inmates that have to be transported to courts for trial? These are people that the courts failed to admit to bail. They are called the untried inmates or awaiting trial inmates. In the earlier part of our report, we have shown that the courts have been largely reckless, irrational and inefficient in the manner they handle bail hearings, which led to the fact that 80% of prison inmates are awaiting trial cases. The reckless and dysfunctional manner in which judges deal with bail applications has profound cost implications. First, it means that 80% of prison inmates needs to be transported to court at somebody's expense. This requires each correction center to maintain a fleet of vehicles, personnel and security for the movement of inmates to and from courts each day. We do not have precise cost figures. But apart from feeding the inmates, the costs of taking them to court is probably the second highest expenditure category in the recurrent part of the prisons budget. Assuming that the cost per annum of transporting prisoners to court in the FCT Abuja area is 500 million naira, cutting in half the number of awaiting trial inmates will save 250 million naira in Abuja alone. That amount can go toward better and improved conditions of service for prison staff, and better facilities for reforming convicted inmates. Another manner in which the courts impose logistical costs on the prisons is by inordinate delays of trials. It compounds the problem of mishandling of bail applications. That is: the court has remanded a person in prison who ought to have been on bail. And then by failing to try the person in a timely manner, the court prolongs the period of time the person is incarcerated. This compounds the associated costs. We can extrapolate to the wider problems caused by the failings of the judiciary in this regard such as the general cost of keeping inmates in correctional facilities for a long time. However, we limit our analysis here to the cost of transporting inmates to courts for their trial. The question here is: Where do you place the cost of the inefficient behavior of the judiciary? At present, that cost is placed on the prisons. It is always inefficient when costs are not located in the same place as the source of the action or decision that gave rise to the costs. Unless the agency that makes the cost decisions is made to bear the cost, the decisions cannot be efficiently made. If the FCT judiciary is made to bear the 500 million estimated annual cost of transporting inmates from prison to courts, the attitude of the courts toward bail applications will change dramatically. If the cost of transporting inmates to courts were made to compete with the cost of welfare and vacation and medical allowances of judges, the judiciary will immediately reassess its attitude toward bail applications and the length of time it takes a court to conclude a standard case. Currently, some prisons don't have vehicles to take inmates to courts. Keffi prison, for instance, takes inmates to courts only twice a week. The courts are not aware of this. So, on a day the prison is not able to bring an inmate to court, the judge will just adjourn the case to next month. But the date of the next adjournment may be another day the prison will not have a vehicle. This could go on for six months without the prisoner ever being to court. But assuming it is the court that arranges the transportation of the inmate, this sort of waste will likely not occur. DPA therefore suggests changes that will be necessary to make the courts bear the cost of bringing to court the person they could not release on bail. When a person has not been convicted, he belongs to the courts and not to the prisons. It should be the responsibility of the courts to bring the person from prison to court and back until the end of his trial or until the court grants him bail. This is what obtains in some other countries including Britain. This recommendation calls for a redefinition of the relationship between the courts and the prisons. Currently, the prisons are blaming the courts for congestion and costs of transporting inmates to courts, and the courts are blaming the prisons for either not bringing the inmates to courts for trials or for not bringing them on time. This situation will change if the courts bear the cost of its actions and decisions in this regard. This will lead to greater efficiency and improved justice in Nigeria. By the Due Process Advocates Foundation (DPA).
What did the court really say in the rape case against the COZA pastor?
The benefit of being a member of this forum is that it gives you the opportunity to operate above the average person. As an Advocate, you should not think or react like an average person in the society. You may not have trained in Harvard or Oxford, but your exposure to DPA debates and reasoning keeps you very close.
Looking at the judgment of the court in the case which Busola Dakolo filed against Pastor Fatoyinbo, you see reactions that show you how deeply ignorant many educated people are. You need to understand that case in a way an informed observer should see it.
The court DID NOT decide that the Pastor was not guilty. The guilt or innocence of the Pastor was never before the court. Why? Because it was a civil case. Neither the police nor the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) filed a rape case against the pastor. What happened was that the lady filed a civil action for sexual assault against the pastor.
Rape is a criminal offense. Only the police or the MOJ can charge a person to Court for rape. When the MOJ or the police sue you, it is the country that is suing you. They use the awesome resources of the country to pursue you - investigate the case, bring together witnesses and prosecute you.
This case was brought by the lady herself, as a civil action. In civil suits, you must file your case within 6 years after the incident occurred, except under special circumstances when you may be allowed to bring an action after 6 years had elapsed.
Busola's case was actually in two stages. The first stage was to see if she could be allowed to bring her action after 6 years under one of the exceptions to the rule. The second stage would be whether the man did what he was accused of doing. The case did not get to that second stage. The judge held that the suit was statute barred (That is, she did not come to court early enough. So her case cannot be heard). That was what the court decided. It is wrong to assume that the court decided the second stage of the case - whether he did it or not.
Criminal cases generally do not have statutes of limitation. If the MOJ had decided to prosecute the pastor, the case would have gone straight to the second stage (evaluation on the merit) and the court would address the issue of guilt or innocence.
Let me illustrate how the statute of limitation works. Let us say that I am a man and you are a lady. Let us say that I come to your house now and find you alone at home. Let us say I pull a knife on you and rape you violently and I threaten to kill you if you tell anyone what happened. Let us say that you did not sue me until 2025 (The incident occurred on November 14, 2019 and you decide to sue me on November 15, 2025). I can actually come to court and say: "My Lord, everything she said is true. But that was more than 6 years ago and your court has no jurisdiction to hear a case that is statute barred". The judge will look at me and hate me. But he will still dismiss your case, not because I did not do it, but you waited too long to go to court. You should have sued me two days ago instead of today.
So, even if the COZA Pastor had confessed that he did it, the judgment will still be the same.
So it is not correct to read what happened in court to mean that the court found that he didn't do it.
DPA can expose the police: look at this
Emeka Ugwuonye has been on a mission, forced upon him by circumstance. When they took him to Abattoir, he saw unimaginable impunity. When they took him Garki police station, saw more. DPA has kept a good record of how the police can abuse their prosecutorial authority.
A SUMMARY OF ABUSE OF PROSECUTORIAL POWERS THROUGH THE CASES
The Nigerian Police, FCT Command, headed by Mr. Bala Ciroma, filed the following charges against Emeka Ugwuonye and grossly abused their powers.
(1) In April 2018, the police filed a criminal defamation charge against Emeka at the Magistrate Court, Wuse Zone 2. Court No. 2. Complainant is David Aiyedegbon. The theory of the offense was that Emeka made a post on Facebook accusing David of involvement in the disappearance of Chacha. Note that David already sued Emeka civilly since 2016, but was doing badly in the civil case. Also, note that in April 2018, the police had not arrested anyone in connection with the disappearance of Chacha. So, they really could not have ruled out anybody.
On the day of arraignment, the police prosecutor, one Mr. Adama vigorously opposed bail. But the court granted Emeka bail over the opposition of the police. Outside the courtroom, Mr. Adama warned Emeka's counsel, Mr. Tosin Ajaomo, that if Emeka continued criticizing the police over Chacha's case the police would charge him with the murder of Chacha. Note that in April of 2018, the police officially continued to deny DPA's claim that Chacha was killed in 2016.
The police were disappointed that Emeka was granted bail in Court No. 2.
(2) On July 6, 2018, while Emeka attended hearing at Court No. 2, the police arrested him at the court house. They detained him in Abattoir detention center till July 9, 2018 when he was charged to Court at Magistrate Court, Wuse Zone 2, Court No. 9. Again David was the Complainant. The theory of the offense was that he, Emeka, misled the police when he posted on Facebook that the confessions of the two men arrested and paraded by the police as killers of Chacha were probably not voluntary.
The police vehemently opposed bail. But the Magistrate granted Emeka bail over the opposition of the police. Emeka met the terms of bail the same day. But the police prosecutor refused to verify the surety as directed by court. It took 7 days detention of Emeka in Keffi Prison before the Magistrate varied the bail order for the purpose of removing the requirement of verification by the police prosecutor.
(3) On October 16, 2018, while Emeka was attending the trial in Court 2, the police arrested him again and detained him. On October 18, 2018, while in the custody of the police, Mr. James Idachaba, a senior police officer, was heard discussing with other police officers concerning how to ensure that Emeka would be remanded by any court. The discussion was which of the Magistrates would agree to deny Emeka bail in the next charge. The officers mentioned names of various Magistrates. They settled on one Magistrate at Court 3, Wuse Zone 6. Mr. Idachaba made a phone call, presumably to the Magistrate. They discussed Emeka Ugwuonye and the need to remand him. After the call, Mr. Idachaba ordered Emeka into a police van and they took him to Magistrate Court, Wuse Zone 6, Court 3. Mr. Idachaba went into the office of the Magistrate and came out after about 30 minutes.
When the case was called and after arraignment, the police opposed bail. The Magistrate played to an agreed script by calling for a written bail application. He adjourned for a week to hear the bail. On October 25, 2018, he adjourned again to October 26, 2018 to rule on the bail application. The Magistrate granted bail.
(4) On November 14, 2018, while he was attending the hearing at Magistrate Court 9, at Wuse Zone 2, the police withdrew the case in that Court. The Magistrate made a profound remark while striking out the case. The Magistrate stated on record that the police were desperate and that their action amounted to persecution of Emeka.
(5) As Emeka was stepping out of Magistrate Court 9, on November 14, 2018, the police served two criminal summonses on him. One contained 10 count charges, which was a duplication of the charges filed in the three Magistrate Courts (Court 2 and 9, Wuse Zone 2 and Court 3, Wuse Zone 6). The second summons was for a murder and armed robbery charge. The theory of the offense was that Emeka conspired with Jekwu and Emmanuel Adogah and robbed and killed Chacha with a machete. Emeka was not arrested this time.
(6) On November 26, 2018 while Emeka was attending trial at Magistrate Court 2, the police arrested him again and took him to Abattoir Detention center where he was held until December 14, 2018 when he was arraigned before Justice Modupe Osho-Adeyemi of the FCT High Court, Gudu. The judge remanded Emeka in Kuje Prison.
(7) In February 2019, Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi denied Emeka bail to the delight of Mr. Idachaba who led the prosecution team. Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi admitted later that she decided the bail application without reading the proof of evidence. This is instructive because one of the grounds for the bail application was that there was no connection between the charges and the proof of evidence.
(8) The police prosecution and the complainant sponsored people to come to Court to photograph Emeka in the dock and use his pictures for smear campaign against him in the social media.
(9) After Emeka was denied bail and remanded, the prosecution still went to Magistrate Courts 2 and 6 to ask for bench warrant because Emeka was not in Court.
(10) When the Magistrates refused to issue bench warrant, given that Emeka was in the prison custody, the prosecution applied to withdraw the charges in Courts 2 and 6. Their aim then was to obtain a bench warrant which could be used to justify further arrests if Emeka was to get bail at the High Court.
The records of these proceedings are available. There is no doubt that the Commissioner of Police and Mr. James Idachaba have thoroughly abused the prosecutorial powers of the police, with the indulgence and probable collusion of some of the judicial officers.
Prepared by DPA