By Victor Akaa, Abuja
As part of efforts to curb cases of illegal arrest and detention by law enforcement agencies, officers of the Police Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) have been trained on the administration of the criminal justice Act (ACJA) 2015 by the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC).
Peter Omeka, a consultant at the Rule of Law and Anti corruption (RoLAC) programme, speaking during the two-day training organised by the RoLAC and funded by the European Union and British Council in Abuja on Thursday, said the training became necessary to address cases of gross human rights abuses during arrest and detainment of suspects.
He explained that prior to October, magistrates under the new ACJA 2015, visited places of detention to inspect how arrest were made and why . He said Magistrates reviewed the cases in SARS and in the course of the review, over 200 detainees were released in less than a week and moved to various prisons.
“This means the period of their stay had elapsed going by the law, the law says whithin a certain period they should be released even if investigation is going on”, he said.
Omeka said despite the provision of the law, the law enforcement agencies are often reluctant to release detainees, or get a court order especially if they have committed serious crimes saying it will jeopardise investigation
He said the aim of the two days workshop was informed by the need to train and sensitize the SARS officers on why the detainees where moved to various prisons in Abuja.
“Some officers said the difficulty in arresting the detainees is huge and it broke their heart that we moved them, so one thing became clear , which is the need to sensitize them to know the morale behind the movement, that’s why we have this training”.
Omeka further said the training is serving two purposes which is to sensitize them on the ACJA across board and also training them on section 33 which relates to their reporting to magistrates within their jurisdiction and section 34 which allows magistrates to visit police stations as well as the Chief Justice directive to allow magistrates visit other places of detention.
Also speaking, one of the resource persons Joshua Dada, legal officer in the ACJMC, said the training became imperative for there was a need to reform SARS and overhaul it’s system of operations to be in line with best practices and especially to ensure they work in accordance with the provisions of the ACJA.
He said, “We considered that it is imperative not to end SARS but to reform it, we understood that their modus of operandi wasn’t in line with world best practices, but we considered that if they are trained and informed about how to go on with their operation, it will be better.
“We need an overhaul of SARS in terms of how they arrest, their investigation, length of time people stay in their detention facility and management of facility. Every single thing that regards their operation needs to be reformed”, Dada stressed.
