The Nigerian Bar Association, Aba branch in Abia State has said it will partner the police in re-training policemen in respecting human rights and handling investigations.

The new Chairman of the branch, Charles Onuchukwu, gave the assurance during an interview in Aba on Wednesday.

Mr Onuchukwu said that poor investigations by some policemen had ruined some chances of punishing criminals.

He also said that many policemen were acting in ignorance of some provisions of Nigeria’s Constitution, the Police Act and other laws, making them to violate human rights.

He stated, “We hope to have periodic seminars for policemen to put them through on some legal issues to assist their understanding of the position of the law on certain issues. I can tell you that today many criminal matters failed because of the nonchalant attitude of the police in doing thorough investigations or writing investigation reports. I have seen cases where an investigating police officer messed the entire thing up with haphazard investigation report.’’

Mr Onuchukwu said that the NBA branch would do its best to ensure that policemen would know how to handle investigations better and respect human rights through partnership and re-training.

“We will ensure that issues of criminal justice are done properly so that the police will not use their errors to continue to let suspected criminals off the hook. We all want a society guided by law where criminals are not let off the hook while the innocent should be free to move,” he said.

The chairman decried the state of insecurity in Aba.

He said, “The government is trying, but it needs to step up its efforts. There is a need for the police to do proper intelligence gathering.”

Mr Onuchukwu said the NBA Aba was also worried about delay in prosecuting cases which, he said, caused accused persons to languish in custody.

He said that the NBA intended to meet the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, to discuss the need to increase the budget of the state judiciary to enable construction of more courts.

He also called for the appointment of more judges in Abia.

He stated, “Since 2021, Abia State has not appointed any judge; so, the few high court judges are handling many cases and they can’t kill themselves. At the magistrates’ courts, some of them sit in the morning while their colleagues take over in the afternoon because of lack of courtroom spaces.” 

The chairman said that the branch was seeking ways to collaborate with other branches and the state government to tackle the challenges.

(NAN)