Rivers State Governor, Nyesom
Ezenwo Wike, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order 10 was
politically motivated and geared towards 2023 general election.
He also warned that the Federal
Government will destroy criminal justice system in States if the Executive
Order 10 is implemented.
The Executive Order 10 of the
Federal Government permits the deduction of funds from each State account to
finance the judiciary.
The governor made this assertion
in his keynote address presented at the 3rd Annual Nigerian Criminal Law Review
Conference organised by the Rule of Law Development Foundation in Abuja on
Monday.
He stated that ahead of the 2023
general election, the federal government which has been hostile to judges, now
suddenly wants to lure the judiciary to assume it believes in independence of
judiciary, by enacting Executive Order 10.
“Independence is not to take
resources and preside over award of contract. If you cannot give judgment
according to your conscience; if you cannot give judgment according to the law,
then there is no independence. And this of course affects the criminal justice
system.”
Wike also pointed out that
politicisation of the issue of security by the Federal Government has continued
to negatively affect the criminal justice system in the country.
He said the prevailing cases of
kidnapping, banditry and armed robbery which threatens the very existence and
stability of the nation clearly justifies the establishment of State or
Community Police.
He observed that while
establishment of State Police may require amendment of the extant Section
214(1) of the 1999 Constitution to provide State, the Rivers State Government
is of the opinion that community police or Neighbourhood Watch could be established
without constitutional amendment.
“The truth of the matter is that
with the current strength of the Nigeria Police Force which stands at about
372,000, the Nigeria Police Force lacks the operational capacity to fulfill its
primary or core mandate of crime detection, crime prevention and maintenance of
public safety, law and order or protection of lives and property of persons in
Nigeria.
“To put it plainly, the Nigeria
Police lacks the operational capacity to police the nation which is a
federation of about 923.768km (356.669 sqm) with an estimated population of
195.9 million. It is this stark reality that informs call for establishment of
State Police to provide complementary role to the Nigeria Police Force in crime
detection, prevention, and maintenance of law and order.”
He explained that it was against
this background that the Rivers State Government enacted the Rivers State
Neighbourhood Safety Corps Law, No. 8of 2018 which establishes the Rivers state
Neighbourhood Safety Corps Agency as a corporate body and vested with power to
establish uniformed Neighbourhood Safety Corps in the 23 Local government Areas
of the State and to prescribe regulations guiding the operations of the Safety
Corps and any other Local government vigilante group in the State.
In furtherance of this law, he
stated that recruitment and training of members of the uninformed Neighbourhood
Safety Corps commenced at the NYSC orientation camp , Nonwa in Tai LGA, after
obtaining all necessary approvals from the Nigerian Army and other relevant
security agencies. But, unfortunately, the exercise was violently disrupted by
the Nigerian Army , claiming it was illegal and unconstitutional.
Wike said despite a competent
court of jurisdiction recent ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the
Rivers state Neighbourhood Safety Corps, the Army has refused to allow it carry
out its recruitment and training of personnel.
“The point being made here is that as long as
the Federal Government continues to politicise issues of security whether
national or local, so long shall our criminal justice system remain seriously
jeopardize. The suzerain power exercisable by the Federal Government over
matters of security is made manifest by the irregular postings of Commissioners
of Police to the Rivers state Police Command,” he said.
Given that criminal justice
system is inextricably linked with the security, peace and order of the State,
the governor emphasized the need for critical stakeholders in the criminal
justice sector to rethink the system through reform designed to address current
challenges.
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The independence of the judiciary should not derive from executive orders. That amounts to abuse of the process and the constitution. The independence of the judiciary should be as enshrined in the constitution as the third arm of the government. If it is not there or inadequate requiring the assistance of an executive order to have effect then it is abnormal. Such a constitution cannot support democracy and partly explains the failure of the Nigerian state.
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