Rights Of A Suspect During Police Investigations

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
Let's discuss another common legal issue namely the rights of a person during police investigation. It will not be exhaustive but I'll try to cover the basics.

So the first thing we should all note is that people have the right to report crimes to the police & the police has the right to investigate such crimes. In the course of investigation, the police also has the right to invite a person to the station for questioning or effect an arrest or search a person's premises. It is advisable that as patriotic citizens, one should cooperate with the police in their investigations with the guidance of his/her lawyer. Like the learned Justice Stephen Adah said; "I do believe that in a civilized country such as ours, maintenance of law & order should be the focus of all of us citizens. When an allegation of financial crime or any crime is raised against any person, it is in the person's interest for the allegation to be thoroughly investigated & dealt with according to law, so that doubts cast around the person's integrity can be cleared."

Now having said all that the rights of every individual in the course of police investigations are:
1) you have the right to remain silent until after you have consulted with ur lawyer or any other person of ur choice,
2) you have the right to be adequately informed of the facts & grounds for your arrest & detention within 24hours of such arrest,
3) any person who is arrested has the right to be taken to court for trial within a reasonable time. What amounts to a reasonable time has been defined as 1day if there is court close by (within a radius of 40km) or 2days if there is no court close by. However, where there is no court close by within the 40km radius, you can lawfully be detained for more than 2days if the police have reasonable grounds for doing so.
4) You have the right to be presumed innocent & treated as such, until when proven guilty in a court of law,
5) you have the right to be given an interpreter where u cannot understand the language being used at the station,
6) any person who has been unlawfully arrested is entitled to adequate compensation & a public apology.

Before we conclude let me just adumbrate on few notable issues. Firstly, your right to be taken to court & tried for any allegation is meant to ensure that your case is decided fairly by a competent & impartial judge who will observe all the provisions of law & principles of fair hearing. So where you feel the police is not handling your case properly (even in issues of bail), it is your right to demand & insist that you should be taken to court.

Secondly, no matter the allegation or how glaring the facts may seem, every person is presumed innocent until when proven guilty in court. Accordingly, you should be dealt with as an innocent man. The point I'm trying to make here is that any form of torture or brutality by the police or even the complainant is unlawful & it violates the arrested person's fundamental right. Report immediately to your family members or lawyer if such happens.

Thirdly, the police are primarily vested with powers to deal with criminal offences. Consequently, a person can only be arrested in relation to criminal offences. What makes an act or omission a criminal offence is that such act or omission must be defined as a crime by a written law in Nigeria which is still in force, & such law must also prescribe the punishment for such offence. Considering that laymen may not know all the criminal offences in Nigeria, it is advisable that you consult your lawyer as soon as possible. The reason for doing so is that it is not uncommon to see a person (sometimes in connivance with the police) arresting another person for reasons that are not criminal in nature e.g debt recovery (which I have earlier talked about in details).

Fourthly, your right to silence is fundamental & it extends to police statements. In other words, you have the right to refuse to make any statement to the police until after consulting with your lawyer or any other person of your choice. When making statements, always make them yourself with your own hands to avoid untrue facts being imported into your statement. Where for any valid reason you cannot make your statement yourself & the police has to do it for you, let it be with your consent, & after writing ensure you go through it or it is read to you to your understanding so that you can verify the contents of the statement. 

Generally, do not sign or thumb print any document which you did not make & which you have not sufficiently verified the contents. Where possible, get your lawyer to verify the contents of documents yiu wish to sign as he/she better understands the legal implications of documents. The reason for this is that whatever document you sign can easily be used against you in future.

So now you know. Cooperate during investigations, but do so with caution. And get a lawyer, you need him/her more than you think!

#KYR


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