Femi Falana, SAN, a human rights lawyer, has urged lawyers to refrain from obtaining court orders that protect the elite, particularly those accused of corruption.
Falana stated this in an article titled “Courts Lack Power to Stop Arrest, Investigation, and Prosecution of Criminal Suspects,” which SaharaReporters obtained on Tuesday.
According to him, citizens accused of crimes are imprisoned, whereas wealthy criminal suspects are usually invited by anti-corruption agencies to respond to allegations of corruption and other economic crimes leveled against them.
The statement read,
“It is common knowledge that the police invade the homes of the poor to arrest them and take them to police stations where they are detained and charged with all manners of criminal offences in Nigerian courts. Usually, they are denied bail and locked up in correctional centres for years without trial. Even when they are granted bail they are unable to meet the onerous conditions attached to it as the sureties are required to be property owners. Hence the correctional centres are peopled by not less than seventy percent of indigent suspects that are awaiting trial.
“But rich criminal suspects are usually invited by the anti-graft agencies to react to allegations of corruption and other economic crimes leveled against them. In many instances, top lawyers are hired by the highly placed suspects to rush to the either the federal high court or state high court to challenge the legality of the invitation letters. Applications for the enforcement of the fundamental rights of the suspects to personal liberty are filed. In granting the applications, orders of interim, interlocutory and perpetual injunction are made by the courts to restrain the police and anti-graft agencies from arresting, investigating and prosecuting the suspects. In many instances, temporary or permanent immunity has been conferred by public officers or private individuals indicted in criminal diversion of multi million Naira public fund.