By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA – The Presidential candidate of the Action Alliance, AA, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, rtd, has adduced reasons why he would stop police from investigating cases, should he win the 2023 presidential election.
Al-Mustapha, who spoke at a Town Hall meeting the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, organized for all the 18 presidential candidates of political parties contending at the 2023 General Elections, said he would establish a central body that would be saddled with the responsibility of investigating cases.
He said his administration would further embark on holistic reforms that would ensure the separation of the office of the Attorney-General of Federation from that of the Minister of Justice.
Reeling out some of his plans, Al-Mustapha, who is a former intelligence officer that served as Chief Security Officer to late military head of state, General Sani Abacha, said: “An area that requires reform, is the issue of policing itself.
“From 1981 to date, our police have actually gotten it wrong.
“We shall separate the primary responsibility of the police from the secondary responsibility.
“The primary responsibility of police must go to the police, while investigation goes to another body, centrally.
“Police will then have a re-oreintation, because we believe that if we have the two powers merged in the police, we will continue to have human rights abuses.
“We shall also carry out reforms in Ministerial offices. The office of the Attorney-General shall be separated from that of the Minister of Justice for obvious reasons, so that there shall be checks and balances
“We shall encourage the Judiciary to come up with reforms to meet up the standard of the day, meaning the supporting of judicial criminal investigation trials to use electronic means so that there shall be speedy trial for inmates”.
Besides, the AA presidential candidate said his administration would also pay close attention to the rehabilitation of prisoners and convicts.
He descried that rather than rehabilitating inmates, prison facilities in the country have turned to places where persons that were illegally detained, are kept as awaiting trial inmates.
“Some have also stayed longer in detention because of activities in judicial reform.
“We in Action Alliance have already looked at the problems in Nigeria, with me as an example, who was heavily persecuted for 15 years, with torture in 5 years and 2 months that I survived.
“With my experiences, we have now brought together and presented our manifesto, believing that the prison will become a protecting point from psychological to physical, in terms of education and productivity, in our economy and social life”.
He said prisons under his administration would be separated, such that convicts and awaiting trial inmates are not kept under the same facility.
“Attention will be given to education, reforms, re-oreintation and rehabilitation.
“The military and paramilitary bodies shall be discouraged from going into the primary responsibility of the police deliberately, so that the less they play into police role, the lesser abuses we shall have”, Al-Mustapha added.
On his part, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, bemoaned the fact that women and children usually suffer the brunt of rights violations by both state and non-state actors.
Sowore blamed the state of human rights in the country on what he termed as “regimes of impunity that had no regard for the rule of law”.
He said his administration would ensure the enforceability of all the rights in the Constitution, including the right to decent living, education and jobs.
“It is the violation of these rights, over the years, that make our leaders to look down on us”, he added, insisting that the 1999 Constitution was imposed on the citizens.
“This has further made it more difficult for the rights in the Constitution to be respected”, Sowore noted.
Other presidential candidates that were at the Town Hall meeting, were; Adewole Adebayo (Social Democratic Party), Prof. Christopher Imomulen (Accord Party), Sani Yusuf ( Action Democratic Party), Prof. Peter Umeadi of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, while Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, sent a representative.
Each of the candidates was given 10 minutes to speak on their manifestoes in relation to human rights.
However, the program, which was part of activities that was used to mark the 2022 International Human Rights Day, ended without candidates of the leading political parties- the Peoples Democratic Party, All Progressive Congress and Labour party- showing up.
It will be recalled that the LP candidate Peter Obi had through his campaign Director-General, Doyin Okupe, said he would no more attend any town hall meeting where Bola Tinubu of the APC or PDP’s Atiku Abubakar does not physically attend.
An official of the NHRC, Mr. Hillary Ogbonna, while announcing the presence of 6 out of the 18 presidential candidates, disclosed that an invitation was sent out to all the candidates, including Tinubu, Obi and Atiku.
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