By Dare Akogun
The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has condemned the reported arrest and detention of the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) Mr. Fisayo Soyombo, by the 6th Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, with a call for his immediate and unconditional release.
In a statement issued in Lagos, MRA’s Programme Officer, Mr. John Gbadamosi, described Mr. Soyombo’s arrest and detention over the last three days as illegal and unconstitutional.
He argued that “The Nigerian Army lacks the authority to arrest or detain civilians.
‘In any event, it is a clear requirement under the Constitution that anyone deprived of his liberty upon reasonable suspicion of his having committed a criminal offense must be charged to court within 24 hours.
‘Both of these fundamental legal guarantees have been violated in the arrest and detention of Mr. Soyombo by the Nigerian Army,” it stated.
According to Mr. Gbadamosi, the Nigerian Army has minimal powers of arrest under the Constitution and those powers apply only under particular conditions related to the mandate and functions of the Army, such as maintaining internal security or supporting civil authorities, for instance, for “suppressing insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon to do so by the President, but subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.”
Mr. Gbadamosi specifically referred the Nigerian Army to the decision by Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, delivered on February 17, 2021, in a case between Grace Anita Paul and the Chief of Army Staff, Nigerian Army, and others in which the court ruled that the Nigerian Army lacks the authority to arrest and detain anyone not subject to the Armed Forces Act or any other military law.
The judge also cautioned the military against usurping the powers of the Nigerian Police, as outlined in Sections 4 and 84 of the Police Act, which grants the police the authority to detect and investigate crime.
MRA thereafter called on the Federal Government to put an immediate end to the persistent and widespread abuse of powers by government agencies in disregard of the Constitution and violation of basic principles of the rule of law.
