SQUIB EDITORIAL: WHY SCIID PANTI DETENTION FACILITY NEEDS TO BE OPENED FOR INSPECTION BY NBA, MAGISTRATES

 

THE SQUIB is concerned about the plight of detainees in the detention facility of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) of the Lagos State Police Command, Panti, Yaba, Lagos State.

Apart from the spectacular case of Omiyinka James, popularly known as Baba Ijesha, the Nollywood comedian who is being denied bail , the case of Omolola Ejioye, a deceased  detainee at the facility who the family and his counsel claimed died in the detention facility raises a cause for alarm.

THE SQUIB is worried about the statement credited in the media to the DCP Adegoke, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the Department , who asserted that detainees like Baba Ijesha are not being released because of the ongoing nationwide indefinite strike action of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) which have shut the courts.

We call on the Branches of the Nigerian Bar Association in Lagos State, Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos and Epe Branches to rise in unison and demand an inspection of the detention facility. The Branches will be acting in compliance with the directives of the National Human Rights Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association that directed Branches to visit Police facilities during the ongoing nationwide indefinite strike action in a bid to provide pro Bono legal services to detainees who could not be taken to Court.

Equally, we call on serving Magistrates in the Lagos State Magistracy to invoke their powers under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act(ACJA) to inspect the detention facility.