The most effective way to abuse a person’s right is to do it through the court

This is exactly the difference between the method used in the case of Emeka Ugwuonye and that of Omoyele Sowore.

The reason people are protesting over Sowore more than they do in Emeka’s case is because the DSS did not bother to get the judge to join them in abusing Sowore or to do so through the court. And this is where the Police Commissioner for Abuja, Mr. Bala Ciroma, showed more cunning.

The police knew that if they detained Emeka without a court order, there would be consequences. So, they had to do it the ‘smart’ way, which was to get a judge that would agree to do them a favor. They tried three times before they got a judge that was willing to work with them. The work of the judge was to deny Emeka bail.

The calculation was simple: to deny Emeka bail, cause him to go on appeal over bail and at the least, he would spend 3 months in detention. To make sure this would work, they had to allege a capital offence so that the deal with the judge would not look obvious.

But they miscalculated so badly. Their entire assumption was that detaining Emeka in prison would hurt him so badly and ultimately force him to give up the fight. What they did not know was that the method they used would trigger an unexpected consequence. That consequence was that it showed Emeka that the Nigerian police commanders like Ciroma had been framing up people to get rid of them, and that the courts are involved in the racket. And thousands have suffered even loss of life from such abuses, aided by courts.

There is no better place to study and track these abuses than from within the walls of the prison. So detaining Emeka Ugwuonye in Abattoir was like giving DPA a desk in Abattoir, and as you could see, just about one year after his detention in Abattoir, Abattoir is no more. Today, nobody will be detained in Abattoir for more than one month because DPA will pressure the office of the Chief Judge to visit Abattoir at least once a month. And we will tell the Chief Judge how the police hide detainees from judges and human rights agencies.

Also, they have started giving some food to the detainees because DPA exposed how the police embezzled the money allocated for feeding of detainees and thereby causing deaths by starvation.

Now, detaining Emeka Ugwuonye in prison is like giving DPA a desk in the prison. Can you imagine the reforms in our justice system that will result from that? Emeka did not have to rush to come out, as there is more to gain from spending up to a year there. This is the message we have been trying to pass on to those of our members who constantly lamented the detention of our Founder. Having said that, it is time for him to come out and steps can now being taken to achieve that.

The lesson we have learned, which most people don’t have yet is that judicial corruption is the greatest threat to liberty and human rights in Nigeria. It doesn’t matter what the law says about your rights, as long as there are judges that can be bought with a bowl of porridge, those rights mean nothing. Therefore, DPA shall target some of its effort at judicial corruption and we have done a lot of work, yet to be published.

The Nigeria prisons are the great unknown about this country. We now believe that the detention of our leader is a big blessing in disguise. Nigerian judges are closing their eyes and sending underaged people to prison just because the police suspected them of belonging to groups – IPOB, Shiites, cults, etc.

So, back to the comparison: what would have happened if Justice Ojukwu had been induced to deny Sowore bail? What would have happened if the DSS Director had paid the judge a visit and requested a favor, and the favor being to deny him bail? DSS did not bother because of two things: (1) they assumed that once treason was mentioned, bail would be denied or (2) they are so arrogant that they felt they could detain Sowore regardless of what the court says. In this regard, the police were smarter. They figured a way to have Emeka in detention without triggering public outcry. But they still made a big mistake.