“Every criminal situation should be handled by the police, as stated in the Constitution. Our constitution does not authorize the Army to proclaim any Nigerian wanted. The constitution does not enable the Army to arrest and prosecute anyone. It isn’t their responsibility. Only in Nigeria does the army do everything, which is bad for our constitution.
Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and former judges said yesterday that the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) should conduct investigations into the recent murder of 17 soldiers and an unconfirmed number of locals in Okuama, Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State.
The legal luminaries, who criticized the Police for handing over the traditional ruler of Ewu Kingdom, Delta State, HRM Clement Ikolo, one of the eight people declared wanted by the Defence Headquarters, DHQ, Abuja, over the incident, to the Army, claimed that it is not the Army’s constitutional duty to investigate the murder.
They advised the Army to restore the monarch to the Police for thorough investigation and prosecution of the murder cases.
Former chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Okoi Obono Obla, SAN, Cosmos Enwelizor, SAN, Chief Magistrate E. O. Eferakoro, retd., former Attorney-General of Akwa Ibom State, Uwemedimo Nwoko, SAN, a retired President of the Delta State Area Customary Court, Miakpor Emiaso, and Hon. Justice Jonathan.E. Shakarho, retired Judge of the Federal High Court, were among those who spoke with Vanguard.
Police should handle investigations – Enwelizor, SAN
Cosmos Enwelizor, SAN, who talked on the phone in Rivers State, said, “My opinion is that the Army should enable the police to do the investigation and punish anyone is found guilty of the crime.
“Every criminal situation should be handled by the police, as stated in the Constitution. Our constitution does not authorize the Army to proclaim any Nigerian wanted. The constitution does not enable the Army to arrest and prosecute anyone. It isn’t their responsibility. Only in Nigeria does the army do everything, which is bad for our constitution.
“The Army should avoid committing a constitutional violation by designating civilians wanted for criminal charges. Only the police have the constitutional authority to arrest, prosecute, and/or declare somebody wanted, not the army. If there is a crisis somewhere, the police have the authority to intervene and arrest the situation, not the army.
“If you travel to other nations, including Africa, you will never see a soldier on the streets. The Army’s mission is to maintain the country’s territorial integrity, not to designate persons wanted. How can the Army enter a hamlet, Okuama, ruin everything, and then declare that a monarch is wanted?
“While I sympathize with the families of those 17 soldiers killed by hoodlums, I want to say that the killers of those soldiers might not necessarily be indigenes of the community.”
Also reacting yesterday, constitutional lawyer and former aide to ex-President Muhammdu Buhari, Obono Obla, SAN, told Vanguard in Cross River State: “The Army has no scintilla modicum of constitutional or statutory duty to investigate a case of murder.
‘’The constitutional or statutory responsibility of the Army is to defend the country against external aggression or anything that would compromise the country’s territorial integrity.
“The allegation against the suspects is that they murdered 17 soldiers. The army can arrest them. However, after that, they have to hand them over to the Nigeria Police Force which has the constitutional and statutory responsibility to detect and prosecute those who have committed crimes.
“Section 4 of the Nigeria Police Force Act 2020 lists the duties of the Police force to include prevention and detection of crime, apprehension of offenders, and preservation of law and order.
“The Army is part of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Section 3 of the Armed Forces Act 2004. By section 3 (3), the Armed Forces shall be charged with the defence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by land, sea, and air and with such other duties as the National Assembly may, from time to time, prescribe or direct by an Act.
Speaking in Delta State, a retired Chief Magistrate E. O. Eferakoro, said it is an aberration for the Army to have declared the king wanted, advising his lawyers to file for fundamental human rights applications.
His words: “The Army does not have the right to declare anybody wanted. It is a function of the Police. Then, the Police in Delta State should not have handed the king over. The best they could have done is to hand him over to the Inspector-General of Police, and not the Army.
“At this stage, the king’s lawyers should go to court and file fundamental human rights applications. Ordinarily, as a citizen, since he heard that they declared him wanted, he did the right thing by submitting himself to the Police in charge of civil authority, not the army.
“I believe the lawyers should go to court. If they can be rehabilitating riff-raff in the north, why will they be declaring our own dead or alive and then putting a bounty on their head?
“Then, what was the Army’s mission to that place? There are conflicting stories. They should investigate these things; the Police should do the investigation. There are allegations by the youths that the Army came for an illegal operation and that some persons were using the Army. I believe they should investigate these issues.”
Similarly, a retired President of Delta State Area Customary Court, Miakpor Emiaso, said: “I do not think it is much of a constitutional issue, it is simply what the law is. It is not everything go to the constitution; there are things we do in our common world that are regulated, not necessarily on direct provisions in the constitution.
“We have different sources of law, the constitution is one of them. Of course, we have judicial precedence and then we have statutes.
“We run a country governed by law and the law spells out the limit where each person belongs, where your authority lies, and where it stops. We need to straighten out these things in the country.
“The military getting involved in the Okuama thing is in itself against the cannons of natural justice because here, they are the accusers and the prosecutors and apparently, they are going to be the judges.
“They are aggrieved, they are the ones that have been hurt. It is bad, it is terrible that people should kill our soldiers, persons who are in military uniform, raised hands against them, not just hit them, but kill them, snuff life out of them; it is highly condemnable.
“But we are saying that having happened that way, the military who are aggrieved are the accusers, they are now investigating what has happened, they have taken over the whole scene of the crime in Okuama, not allowing any other person to come into the place, not even the Police. You can, of course, predict the outcome of whatever investigation they are carrying out.
“Their decision eventually would match their preconceived notion of who did what in Okuama. In this situation, an independent neutral body stands some chance of being objective in what they do, and the outcome of what they would do, l align myself with that position. You cannot be a judge in your case.”
On his part, Hon. Justice Jonathan. E. Shakarho, a retired Justice of the Federal High Court, said: “It is the Police that have powers to investigate and prosecute, all the Army is doing is illegality from beginning to end. If people come to my house to attack me, then I will bring my family people to fight them.
“You do not do that, you report to the Police, they will investigate, and those found culpable will be arrested and prosecuted. The Army is taking laws into its hands. They have killed civilians in so many states.