The Assistant Chief State Counsel, Edo State Ministry of Justice, (Department of Public Prosecutions), Mrs. Justina Odihirin, has called for the striping of the police, the responsibility of prosecution of criminal cases.
Odihirin made the call on Wednesday in Benin, during the 2nd quarter state working group meeting on accountable governance, justice and security project-accessing, organised by Edo Civil Society Organizations (EDOCSO), in collaboration with the CLEEN Foundation.
She said the decision of the police to take up the roles of prosecution have led to their unlawful detentions in their custody.
“In Ministry of Justice today, we discovered that 70 percent of the files on our table brought in by the police are those who don’t have anything to do in detention at all.
“So, when we in the DPP discovered that, we recommended that they should be released and they were released.
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“I believed that this is happening because the police want to assume the role of arrest, investigation and prosecutions.
“So, I will suggest that their roles should be narrowed to the arrest and investigation of criminal suspects, while the prosecutions should be left with the DPP,” she said.
Speaking in the same vein, the Coordinator-General of EDOCSO, Comrade Omubude Agho, noted that the state law that gives the Nigeria Police the right to investigate, arrest and prosecute a criminal suspect, has led to the violation of the rights of the citizens of the state which ordinarily ought not to have been.
Agho who spoke on the “challenges in the implementation of administration of criminal justice law of Edo State and way forward,” said the duty of the police should start with the arrest and the investigation of its suspect and that upon completion of their investigations, should hand them over to the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for onward prosecutions.
The one-day roundtable brought together the State Ministry of Justice, Independent Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria Bar Association and Edo Civil Society Organisations in the state.
