Thread by @TopeAkinyode

ALERT: This misguided Tweet from EFCC doesn't represent the position of the law in Nigeria.

It is illegal for security operatives to parade innocent citizens. A suspect (even if caught at the scene of crime) is innocent unless convicted by Court.

#Thread

https://twitter.com/officialEFCC/status/1305036567740911616

Media and public parade of suspects have no legitimacy under the Nigerian judicature. The only exception to this is 'Identification Parade’ which is allowed by law. But there is clear distinction between media parade and identification parade.

While media parade is outrightly illegal, identification parade is a matter of legal necessity where the identity of a suspect is in doubt by a prosecution witness.

So to allay the doubt of a prosecution witness, the real suspect of a crime is placed in a group of people who have striking physical resemblance as the suspect and the police would ask the witness to identify the suspect. This is what identification parade entails.

Identification parade is lawful and has been validated in many cases such as; EYISI & ORS V. THE STATE (2000) LPELR-1186(SC), OKOH v. THE STATE (2008) LPELR-8352(CA), EHIMIYEIN v. STATE (2013) LPELR-20764(CA), etc

However, media parade which the EFCC and other security operatives do is illegal and very overreaching.

Any suspect who is unjustly paraded before the media can successfully challenge it in Court because it is a violation of the fundamental right to human dignity. This was the judgement of the Court in Ottoh Obono v. Inspector General of Police, Suit No; FHC/CA/CS/91/2009