Amnesty International says mobile courts are being used to
extort alleged defaulters of lockdown violations in parts of the country such
as Kaduna and Kano states.
Speaking during a webinar organised by the Centre for
Democracy and Development (CDD) on Thursday, Osai Ojigho, AI director in
Nigeria, said the watchdog has been receiving complaints of such extortion.
The webinar which was titled, “Human rights and law
enforcement during the COVID-19 lockdown”, reviewed human rights issues
concerning the pandemic.
Ojigho also said it is unacceptable for the mobile courts to
prosecute citizens without them having access to lawyers.
“If people are charged to court, they also need legal
services. And part of the problem is that lawyers have not necessarily been
grouped as essential services,” she said.
“When you talk about access to justice, it includes the
rights of access to lawyers for defence. The courts shouldn’t be prosecuting
cases without lawyers.
“We have seen it abused before the COVID-19 lockdown and it
is even worse now. We have also received
reports about people being asked to offer bribes.
“What international human rights law says is that whatever
provisions you make must have three provisions; they must follow legitimacy,
must be legal and must be reasonably justified.
“The right to have legal representation to a fair trial is
sacrosanct. The state attorneys-general should be advising their principals on
how to carry out these prosecutions.
“A lot of thoughts should also go into involving the
ministries of justice providing such services for people charged in these
courts.”
Anthony Ojukwu, executive secretary of the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC), said the commission had earlier reported 29 cases of
extra-judicial killings committed by security agencies.
“During the first two weeks of lockdown, we had 18
extra-judicial killings, and more in the second round, making it a total of 29
extrajudicial killings,” he said.
He said to curb the killings, the Nigeria police force must
begin to employ less force in their operations such as use of rubber bullets
during violent protests as done in other countries.
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