news
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A judge
beaten in his own court |
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By Reuben Abati
The Guardian Friday May 5,
2009 |
A RECENT incident reported by The Punch
newspaper ought to attract public
outrage but in the absence of this in a
society that is already shocked beyond
further shock, the implications of the
developments for the health of society
and its moral fibre should not be
allowed to pass unremarked. What exactly
is wrong with us in this country? Is our
country a large mental ward or just
another land?
See The Punch, May 30, pp. 3 and 20, an
interview titled: "While policemen beat
me in court, their senior officers
laughed - Wilberforce Meigbope, the
magistrate beaten by Lagos policemen for
granting suspects bail." Mr. Wilberforce
Meigbope, the Presiding Magistrate of
Court 8, Botannical Garden, Ebute Meta,
Lagos, alleges in the newspaper
interview that on May 19, he was beaten
up in his court by policemen, while
their senior officers laughed. He had
made in the eyes of the police the
terrible and unforgivable mistake of
granting bail to 25 suspects who had
been brought in on a three-count charge
of conspiracy, allegation of demanding
N15 million and being members of an
unlawful society known as the Niger
Delta Coastal Security.
These are bailable offences under
Nigerian law and the duty of the (judge)
is to apply the law. But the police had
insisted on influencing the judge. When
he refused, they resorted to self-help.
The tragedy of it is that police men are
part of the justice administration
system with the court of law at the
apex. The police have no powers to issue
judgements: the role of all players
within the justice dispensation system
is well outlined. But when policemen
begin to behave like thugs in a court of
law, then the entire machinery of
justice is derailed. The idea of
policemen beating judges is
preposterous. I guess it points to the
continuing failure of Nigeria as a
state. Mr Meigbope's experience had all
the elements of the bizzare.
The facts of the case as reported by the
Magistrate are as follows: On April 14,
the accussed persons had been granted
bail, but only one of them was yet to
perfect her bail conditions. The police
prosecutors had registered their
objection to the bail on the grounds
that "the matter is serious". On April
28, the police applied to withdraw the
case, but the magistrate refused to
grant the application. On May 19 when
the case was called again in court, the
police requested that the case should be
adjourned till July 27 at 12 noon. The
magistrate granted both requests.
Meanwhile the bail that had been granted
by the court on April 14 was still in
effect. But as soon as the magistrate
moved on to "other matters", hell broke
loose.
The magistrate paints the picture
himself: "About 10 minutes later, some
lawyers just broke into the proceedings
and said that despite the court order,
the police had been arresting the 25
accussed persons, because on that day,
the lady that was not able to meet her
bail condition also came from Kirikiri.
After listening to them, I rose and went
out. I met with the policemen and said:
'Please comply with the court order.'
They ignored me. They refused to stop.
One of them even told me that he would
shoot me. Before I knew what was going
on, the accussed persons started jumping
down from the two buses which had been
hijacked for the purpose of rearresting
them. Some jumped through the window and
landed on my shoulder, some rushed out
through the door. They held my hands and
legs and started pleading, 'Sir, help
us, you must help us'. The policemen
started punching them against me and in
a twinkle of an eye, I felt all manner
of blows over my body. In the melee, my
shirt was torn and three buttons fell
off my suit."
His Worship was eventually rescued by
"judiciary staff." "All the senior
police officers that came to court that
day were inside their cars within the
court premises. It was raining. They saw
the scene but they did not do anything.
I believe they gave the order that led
to the mayhem....Before I went to the
buses that they hijacked, I told them
(officers) to talk to their boys to
comply with the court order. They did
not even do as if they heard me. They
were just laughing."
Commenting further on police behaviour,
His Worship says one Inspector Julius
Okoedo during the arraignment of the
matter kept making noise in court and
although the magistrate told him to stay
where the lawyers were, the policeman
told the magistrate that "he had no
right." Meigbope reports that the
Inspector, "the one who called himself a
lawyer" had advised him not to grant the
suspects bail, but "I refused. To play
police game? That means you are already
dead...I am here to maintain justice
even at the point of death." For
standing firm, Mr. Meigbope now suffers
a lot of pains. "Now if I want to sleep
at night, my heart would be throbbing.
Whether it is broken, I don't know. Then
my shoulder, my hips, my thigh where
those people held me and they were
beating them and beating me".
We sympathise with His Worship. His
story should be read by all judges and
magistrates for it raises not just the
obvious issue of the lawlessness of the
police, but also the conduct of the
judex. The Honourable Magistrate in this
instance abandoned his Bench and jumped
into the arena with his hands and feet
and mouth, and hence he found himself in
the undignified position of being
assaulted and threatened. He should have
stayed on his Bench. And who are those
jankara lawyers who rushed in to plead
with the magistrate to come out and
physically enforce his own order? And he
too rushed out of the court, like a
militant, to meet with the policemen to
tell them 'please comply with the court
order'! And he got beaten in the
process, and he lost three buttons and
his shirt was torn. He should thank his
stars he didn't lose some teeth.
His Worship could have been shot and the
police would have reported the matter as
a case of accidental discharge. Strange
things happen in the Nigerian
magistracy, but this must go down as one
of the funniest. The magistrate became a
policeman, threatening to enforce his
own orders "at the point of death", and
the police whose original duty is to
enforce the law became law breakers in
court premises. What happened in front
of Magistrate Meigbope's court on May 19
is a complete breakdown of law and
order, with His Worship as the
protagonist of a sordid drama. It could
have been really sad still if the
learned Magistrate had also tried to
retaliate by hitting a policeman in
return. Judges must realise that the
best protection that they have is within
the province of the law not physical
exertion.
When the lawyers came to His Worship, he
should have told them to take the
appropriate steps to ensure compliance
with court order. Those lawyers should
know what to do and if they don't, it is
not the duty of the presiding judge to
act on their behalf by embarking on a
rescue mission. Meigbope is a very
articulate man and the interview that he
has granted The Punch newspaper is quite
entertaining, but he must be told that
it is not in the place of judges to
behave like village chiefs. He has
brought the Bench to great ridicule and
he lays himself open to charges of
partisanship. He says he has reported
the incident to the Lagos State
Judiciary. The first response from above
should be to take the case away from
him, to prevent the absurd situation of
further physical conflict in his court
in this matter.
In the same interview, Meigbope points
out that the Lagos State judiciary can
boast of "well certificated judges,
experienced and learned judges who are
prepared to make sure that justice is
done". Yes, but not through physical
involvement, and certainly not through
newspaper interviews! Meigbope's
experience confirms the need for the
training and retraining of the judex at
all levels. Now, he says he will submit
the bill for his medical treatment to
the state for reimbusement...
But there is no doubt that the police in
this case are useless and that their
conduct, including the senior officers
who laughed as the law was being broken
is reprehensible. We have a police
force, as Meigbope points out, where
many of the officers are lawyers, and
yet the police is the leading
law-breaking institution in Nigeria.
This points to the general collapse of
values and standards in the land, and
the failure of the police as an
institution.When lawyers and judges
exchange altercations in the court room
and the police insist on over-ruling
judges, with the accussed clinging to
the trousers of the judge for physical
help, it means that our society is lost.
The judiciary fails in its function as
the last hope of the common man and the
reign of impunity is encouraged. We are
unfortunately growing a society where
there is widespread disregard for the
law at all levels.
As I read Meigbope's interview and the
accompanying Lagos State Police PRO's
dismissal of the incident as mere "rumour",
I thought of the riotous behaviour by
voters, electoral officials and the
police in the recent election in Ekiti
State, the alleged execution of suspects
in police cells, the number of awaiting
trial persons in Nigerian prisons, and
the well-reported menace of policemen on
Nigerian roads... all in a country where
the incumbent President says his primary
ambition is to enforce the rule of law.
The Inspector General of Police and the
Lagos State Police Commissioner, both of
whom are lawyers should take personal
interest in Magistrate Meigbope's case.
Who are those policemen who threatened
to shoot the learned magistrate? Was
there a breakdown of communication on
the bail process and why, if so? And is
it possible that the accussed persons
were being arrested for another offence
different from the case already before
the court? It is about time the Nigerian
Bar Association and the Body of Benchers
began to take a keen interest also in
cases of this nature: errant lawyers who
turn court premises into an arena for
combat should have their names struck
off the register, be they men of uniform
or not. The Nigerian judiciary must also
invest in the training of its officers,
with special emphasis on decorum.
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