We
deem it necessary and expedient to once again address the issue of our members
that are presently detained in the Kaduna convict Prison and awaiting trial. We
decided to address the issue a second time based on the illegalities that have
attended their detention and the unconstitutional and procedural breaches that
have attended the cognizance by the Chief Magistrate 1, Ibrahim Taiwo Road
Magistrate Court Kaduna, Awaal Umar.
1. On the 17th day of
December 2015 the Nigerian Police Force prepared a First Information Report In
relation to some of our members in their custody. The first of the First
Information Report KMD/188X/15 had a total of 34 suspects. The second of the
First Information Report KMD/189X/15 had a total of 79 suspects. The third of
the First Information Report KMD/190X/15 had a total of 90 suspects. The Fourth
of the First Information Report KMD/191X/15 had a total of 10 suspects mostly
those arrested in Kaduna on the 16th day of December 2015. The
fifth First Information Report KMD/204X/15 had a total of 49 suspects.
2. The Nigerian Police Force did not take any
of these suspects to the Chief Magistrate Court for cognizance/prosecution and
the Chief Magistrate 1, Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Awaal Umar did not demand to
see any of suspects before he signed their remand warrant and they were taken
to prison directly from the various police formations where they were detained.
The Chief Magistrate knew what he did was illegal and unconstitutional
3. It was on the basis of this procedural
irregularity and illegality that prompted the same Chief Magistrate to sit
inside the premises of the Kaduna Convict prison to regularize what is patently
an illegal arraignment and detention of the suspects and this he thought he has
done on the 10th day of February 2016.
4. That based on the irregular arraignment,
the Chief Magistrate could not explain how four of our members found themselves
inside the Kaduna Convict prison when their names were not in all the First
information Reports. These are Nasiru Umar, Auwal Abubakar, Ibrahim
Abdulhamid and Zaharadden Abdulaziz. Rather than arrest this illegality, the
Chief Magistrate ordered the Police to capture and add their names to any of
the First Information Reports.
5. We
are also at a loss why the Chief Magistrate will adjourn a simple bail
application argued before him to the 29th of March 2016 on the
basis of an illegal directive he claimed he received from the Judicial
Commission of inquiry not to release any of the suspects on bail pending the
conclusion of their sitting.
Our Position and Demands
1. The
Chief Judge of Kaduna State must investigate the deliberate procedural
irregularity perpetrated by the Chief Magistrate 1 Ibrahim Taiwo Road Kaduna in
taking cognizance of the offences and suspects he signed their detention
warrant in December three months after he signed the said warrant committing
them to prison custody.
2. The
Controller General of Prison must investigate how and when and in what
circumstances four suspects arrested by the Police found themselves into the
Kaduna Convict Prison when they were never arraigned before any Court of Law
and there was no warrant for their remand.
3. We believe that it is illegal,
unconscionable and unconstitutional for the Chief Magistrate Ibrahim Taiwo Road
Kaduna to advice the Police to go and add the names of four of our members
illegally thrown into the Prison into the existing FIR when their names were
never there in the first place. We therefore demand the unconditional release
of Nasiru Umar, Auwal Abubakar, Ibrahim Abdulhamid and Zaharadden Abdulaziz.
4. We
demand that the Chief Judge of Kaduna State and the Kaduna Judicial Service
Commission must investigate how and when the Chief Magistrate got a letter
demanding that he should not deliver ruling on a bail application moved before
him on the 14th day of January 2016 only to adjourn ruling on
same to the 29th day of March 2016 on very flimsy and illegal
excuses and directives.
5. We demand that our members must be given
their due process rights. Our members are being remanded in prison custody
without any charges being framed against them. It is unconstitutional and
illegal to detain suspects while the police are going about fishing for
evidence that is not there.
6. We demand that our members should be
released unconditionally if the Police have no evidence that they have
infringed on the law.
7. We insist that our members are the victims
in the unfolding events and those that are supposed to face trial are the ones
pretending to be victims.
Signed:
Ibrahim
Musa
President
Media Forum Islamic Movement
0805
078 6093
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