By Ismail Shuaib
ABUJA: The Nigerian Bar Association NBA has condemned the Nigeria Police Force for what it describes as an “overreach” and a “brazen assault on the Constitution” after the police began investigating the Attorney General of Anambra State and detained the state’s Director of Public Prosecution DPP.
In a statement signed by NBA President Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, and General Secretary Dr Mobolaji Ojibara, the association expressed outrage that the IGP Monitoring Unit had invited and released on bail the DPP and other law officers in the Anambra Ministry of Justice.
The police are investigating the officers for exercising the Attorney General’s power to enter a nolle prosequi (a formal notice of discontinuing a criminal matter) in a criminal case.
The police have also extended an invitation to the Attorney General of the State.
Constitutional Crisis
The NBA asserted that the police have no authority to question the Attorney General’s power of nolle prosequi, which is explicitly granted under Section 211 of the 1999 Constitution.
The statement emphasized that this prerogative power is not subject to police or even judicial review.
“The NBA will not, therefore, sit idly by while the Police overreach themselves by brazenly assaulting the Constitution in this manner,” the statement read.
“We fear that if this is allowed to happen, the Police may one day purport to have the power to investigate a judicial officer for delivering judgments.”
The NBA also criticized the police for what it described as an abusive investigative model, where cases that should be handled by local divisions are instead transferred to Abuja, causing hardship and disruption for those being investigated.
Demand for Apology
The association called on the Inspector General of Police to immediately cease the investigation and tender an “unreserved apology” to the Attorney General and the law officers.
The NBA vowed that the office of the Attorney General would not be “cowed” by intimidation or threats.
Furthermore, the NBA has directed its National Litigation Committee, led by Ama Etuwewe, SAN, to prepare for legal action to protect the fundamental human rights of the lawyers and prevent the subversion of the Attorney General’s constitutional powers.
The association is also calling on the Bar to take this as a wake-up call to provide better protection for lawyers from job hazards and abuse.
