Right To Be Informed Of Charge(s) On Arrest #RiDeCampaign

The Right To Be Informed Of What You Are Being Charged With And The Right To Inform Your Loved Ones About Your Arrest -

We strongly believe that these are two of the preliminary rights of a detainee. In theory when a person is being arrested by the police, the police is meant to caution them in these words "You have the right to remain silent, anything you say or do will be used against you in the court of law" this is very similar to the Miranda Right or Warning which is being used in the United States of America. It should be noted that this caution has been put in place for a reason, the reason being that if the police does not read the person being arrested his rights anything he says or does during that period would not be admissible in the court of law. It renders any oral evidence given by the person inadmissible.

But ask yourself this "Is this really practiced in Nigeria? How many people have you heard say that the police cautioned them while they were being arrested or before they were arrested?" As said, this rule only exists on paper in our country and not in practice.

Secondly, a detainee has the Right to a phone call to inform a member of his family or his friend about his arrest so at least they would know where he is and start making arrangements to facilitate his release if possible.
In Nigeria today the police just carries out raids and mass arrests without giving the persons being arrested the opportunity to inform their relatives or friends about their whereabouts. I believe this is criminal in the least because it bears a close resemblance to the offence of "Kidnapping". Most times people are arrested and they spend weeks, months or even years in detention without anyone knowing their whereabouts, sometimes the persons' family may be forced to believe the person either ran away or is dead. The families of the accused suffer both mental and emotional trauma because they are uncertain about the fate of their loved one, not knowing that they are being detained. It also really affects the detainee because he is being shut out from the outside world without any hope of help from people that care about him. Prolonged incommunicado detention is incompatible with the substantive liberty inherent in the fundamental right to due process of law. The right to communicate with relatives should be preserved unless the state demonstrates that the denial of such communication is necessary based on a demonstrable risk to national security or the safety of any person.

We do hope that a large scale re-orientation is carried out on our criminal justice system because it is the means whereby the state implements it's laws and not a means to unjustly lock people away. This we hope to achieve in the coming months.

Know Your Right!!!

Team RiDeCampaign.